Places Wordsworth's revolutionary poetic practice, in Lyrical Ballads, in the context of a revolutionary age. It deals mainly with the 1798 edition, but also covers selected poems from 1800.

Part 1 (Life, Times, Themes) sets Lyrical Ballads in the context of Wordsworth life and his age, for instance Wordsworth in France.

Part 2, Literary Strategies, considers Wordsworth's provocative theories of how poetry should work, and includes a treatment of the famous' Preface' to Lyrical Ballads, one of the great poetic manifestos.

Part 3 offers illuminating commentary and questions on the following poems:' We are seven',' Anecdote for fathers',' Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree',' To my sister',' Lines written in Early Spring',' Expostulation and Reply',' The Tables Turned';,' The Female Vagrant',' Goody Blake and Harry Gill',' The Last of the Flock',' The Mad Mother',' The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman',' The Convict',' Old Man travelling',' Simon Lee',' The Idiot Boy',' TheThorn',' Tintern Abbey',' Hart-leap Well',' There was a boy',' Nutting',' The Lucy Poems',' The Brothers' and' Michael'.

Part 4, on Critical Reception, discusses contemporary, Victorian and recent critical approaches to Wordsworth and includes a guide to further reading.