“Fragments of Far-Off Melodies” : Wordsworth and the Reassessment of Ossian

In 1827, Wordsworth published “Written in a Blank Leaf of Macphersonʼs Ossian,” and referred to the controversy over its authenticity. In this poem, he emphasizes the value of “ancient” fragmental pieces of Ossian, by naming famous classical poets like Orpheus and Musaeus, whose works had been lost. Until recently, it had been unjustly ignored as one of his later poems. However, we must consider that the poem was composed during the period of his translation of Virgilʼs Aeneid in 1823-24.Actually, it refers to “Musaeus” in Aeneid. As Tim Fulford acutely points out, it is “one of the finest” poems because it shows the links of his translation and his own works. Wordsworth directly calls to “the Spirit of Ossian,” the narrator himself, instead of its “translator,” James Macpherson. This paper aims to examine Wordsworthʼs elaborate work as a poet and translator by analyzing the poem.