Published anonymously in 1798, the “experiment[al]” (Wordsworth “The Advertisement”) poem was meant to be perceived as a manuscript recently uncovered from an earlier age. It purposefully contains a variety of archaic spelling and syntax. Later editions in 1800 and 1817 modernized some of the archaisms due to critical reception. As outlined in our rationale, we believe in an initial reading of the 1798 original, albeit experimental, text, so as to establish your own interpretations of the poem before presenting you with others.
Read the plain text version here.
View Coleridge’s gloss, added to the 1817 Sibylline Leaves edition, here.
