Italic Typography and Wordsworth’s Later Sonnets as Visual Poetry

The later Wordsworth understood the sonnet as a form of visual poetry. This essay investigates this in relation to Wordsworth’s sense of layout in his 1838 book of sonnets; his conceptualization of the sonnet as “picture,” “frame,” and “monument”; and his use of italic typeface in printings of the sonnet “After-Thought” after 1827. The positive sense of the visual thus articulated by the poet in his later sonnets constitutes one way in which he swerves from his earlier self. The essay argues, in contrast to traditional readings of Wordsworth’s career, that this poetic visuality enriches even as it complicates our understanding of his work.