Dorothy Wordsworth's Lakeland Journals

Wordsworth, Dorothy

Rachel Trickett

HarperCollins, Publishers

A continuous text made up of extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal and a selection of her brother's poems. Dorothy Wordsworth kept her Journal 'because I shall give William pleasure by it'. In doing so, she never dreamt that she was giving future readers not only the chance to enjoy her fresh and sensitive delight in the beauties that surrounded her at Grasmere but also a rare opportunity to observe 'the progress of a poet's mind'. Colette Clark's skilful and perceptive arrangement of Dorothy's entries alongside William's poems throws a unique light on his creative process, and shows how the interdependence of brother and sister was a vital part in the writing of many of his great poems. By reading these poems in relation to the Journal it is possible to trace the processes by which they were committed to paper and so achieve a fuller understanding of them. A writer in her own right, Dorothy kept her Journal sparse in personal and emotional detail. Yet there is, nevertheless, a deep emotional undercurrent running beneath the surface which only falters when William marries Mary Hutchinson. Never again was Dorothy to achieve the freedom, spontaneity and the limpidly beautiful prose with which she infused and irradiated the Grasmere Journals.

Home at Grasmere: Extracts from the Journal of Dorothy Wordsworth (Written Between 1800 and 1803) and from the Poems of William Wordsworth (Penguin Classics)

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Penguin Classics

English Journeys Life At Grasmere

Wordsworth,William

Travel

Penguin Classic

Wordsworth's "exquisite sister", as Coleridge described her, was not only the cherished companion of the two poets, but also a writer who possessed a geniune poetic imagination in her own right. The journals she kept at Alfoxden, in 1798, where her brother and Coleridge were composing the Lyrical Ballads and at Grasmere from 1800 to 1803, when she and Wordsworth were living at Dove Cottage are printed here for the first time as Dorothy wrote them. Two of Dorothy's poems are included in the appendix, along with thirty-three poems by Wordsworth, which are referred to in the journals.

Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (Oxford Paperbacks, 248)

Literature & Fiction

Oxford University Press

"I should detest," wrote Dorothy Wordsworth, "the idea of setting myself up as an author." Protesting to Lady Beaumont she explained "I have not the powers which Coleridge thinks I have--I know it." Despite her self-deprecatory words, however, the reader of Dorothy Wordsworth's letters will discover a skill with language and a power of description that rivals even the poetry of her more famous brother. In this selection, Alan G. Hill offers seventy complete letters that together provide a fascinating portrait of the writer and her surroundings. Spontaneous, intimate, and lively, they constitute a life of Dorothy Wordsworth in her own words, following her from youth to the onset of her last tragic illness. In between, we meet a remarkable group of people, for no other observer was so close to Wordsworth, Coleridge, and their circle, shared so completely their feelings and aims, and had such an eye for the landscape that inspired them. To have brought them so vividly before our eyes is surely one of Dorothy Wordsworth's greatest and most enduring achievements.

Letters of Dorothy Wordsworth (Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Dorothy Wordsworth's The Grasmere Journals, begun in May 1800 while at Dove Cottage, and continued for nearly three years until January 1803, is perhaps the best-loved of all journals. Noting the walks and the weather, the friends, country neighbors and beggars on the roads, William Wordsworth's marriage, the composition of poetry, and their concern for Coleridge, her words bring those first years to vivid and intimate life. This edition has been prepared directly from the manuscripts with undeciphered words clarified, first thoughts, later insertions and deletions indicated, and Dorothy's hasty punctuation largely restored. It also offers rich explanatory notes, containing much new detail on friends and family, the scarcely-known people of the Grasmere valley, the books that were read, and the connections with William Wordsworth's poetry.

The Grasmere Journals

Dorothy Wordsworth's journals are a unique record of her life with her brother William, at the time when he was at the height of his poetic powers. Invaluable for the insight they give into the daily life of the poet and his friendship with Coleridge, they are also remarkable for their spontaneity and immediacy, and for the vivid descriptions of people, places, and incidents that inspired some of Wordsworth's best-loved poems. The Grasmere Journal was begun at Dove Cottage in May 1800 and kept for three years. Dorothy notes the walks and the weather, the friends, country neighbors and beggars on the roads; she sets down accounts of the garden, of Wordsworth's marriage, their concern for Coleridge, the composition of poetry. The earlier Alfoxden Journal was written during 1797-8, when the Wordsworths lived near Coleridge in Somerset. Not intended for publication, but to "give Wm Pleasure by it," both journals have a quality recognized by Wordsworth when he wrote of Dorothy that "she gave me eyes, she gave me ears."

The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals (Oxford World's Classics)

Wordsworth, William, Wordsworth, Dorothy

The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years, 1806-1811: 2

Clarendon Press

Oxford Scholarly Classics is a new series that makes available again great academic works from the archives of Oxford University Press. Reissued in uniform series design, the reissues will enable libraries, scholars, and students to gain fresh access to some of the finest scholarship of the last century.

The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: Volume V: The Later Years: Part II 1829-1834

British & Irish

This fourth and final part of The Later Years, including over 600 never-before-published letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, follows Wordsworth through the troubled years of early Victorian England, providing indispensable material for understanding the later phases of his career, and offering numerous insights into the great poems of his prime.

The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: Volume VII: The Later Years: Part IV 1840-1853

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