“Though absent long, These forms of beauty have not been to me, As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns in

The editor has included a full critical introduction as well as notes at the bottom of each page to help those who are reading the poems for the first time.

Gill places The Prelude in the context of Wordsworth's life, and discusses the various states in which it survives.