http://www.booktraces.org/book-submission-the-poetical-works-of-william-wordsworth-with-a-memoir/

While looking for books I found about eight from the mid to late 1800’s and only one with marginalia. I found The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth With A Memoir by William Wordsworth (1881). This book is the third out of a seven volume set. William Wordsworth was a major English romantic poet until his death in 1850. With the help of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, they launched the romantic age in English literature. At first glance there was not much marginalia though out the book, but with a second thorough look I found a few good pieces. The book overall has little bit of underlining and a few notes in the margins. The notes seem to be just comments by the reader. From what I read they don’t seem to be very analytical or scholarly. This leads me to believe that the book was read out of pleasure rather than for research. I also can guess that the person wasn’t a teacher or student trying to study the book, because of the lack of analysis and overall lack of notes. On p.317 the reader commented “excellent” on a passage that he had underlined. I laughed after reading this comment, because it was amusing to think that the reader was enjoying the book so much that he had to leave a comment. There was on instance where the reader seemed to analyzing the text, but it could easily have just been an observation. At the bottom of p. 139, the reader wrote the word cyclical next to an underlined sentence. The sentence he was referencing was about the multiple settings of the sun. On p. 281 there appears to be a signature across the top of the page. I am not too good at reading Spenserian script, so I could not make out what the signature actually says. I speculated that the name appeared to be “Dillon”, but I might just be hoping that’s what it’s said. I was hoping to find something more significant in my book, but am satisfied with the results I received. Even if it was only a little marginalia, it was still interesting to see what someone from over one hundred years ago was thinking.