My own position is that Snowdon is less magical than it is cathartic. It seems reasonable that a system, withheld over a long period of time but held in the poet’s consciousness (and that is determinative of what the poet writes), could build up enough force to perpetuate a spontaneous overflow at the appropriate moment. That is one way to look at Snowdon. However, the obscurity and uniqueness of Wordsworth’s vision, and the fact that he is conscious of his audience, mediates the experience into something more diffuse (and potentially confusing) than a mere catharsis. It is a mediated catharsis, complicated by Wordsworth’s awareness of an audience that he struggles to find a place for.