The inspired anarchy of William S. Burroughs' work can make him appear scornful of the mainstream of literary thought, but he has in recent years become increasingly concerned with his literary forebears — notably the English Romantics, and Wordsworth in particular. In this paper I wish to trace the incipient Romanticism of Burroughs' early work, by way of explaining his invocations of Wordsworth in his novel, The Place of Dead Roads (1984).