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The poetic land where
Wordsworth lived
Lakeland is a very beautiful part of England. It is a land of mountains, lakes, tarns, sheep, shepherds, fruits and flowers. It is a pastoral land beautifully described by many poets. A number of literary celebrities went to live there or visited it. Among them were Sir Walter Scott, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. Tennyson composed a considerable part of his poem Morte d’ Arthur on the shores of Lake Bassenthwaite. Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster of Rugby School, built Fox How as a holiday home in Rothay valley. John Ruskin lived at Brantwood from 1872 to 1900 in southern lakes. Some of the modern writers and poets were either born there or lived and worked there. Among them were Norman Nicholson, Melvyn Bragg, Hunter Davies and John Wyatt. Apart from there, there were others, too. Lakeland consists of
sixteen lakes and several hundred tarns. Windermere is the largest
lake spreading over ten miles, Elterwater is the smallest which is
only half a mile long. Wastwater is the deepest with a maximum depth
of 258 feet, others are shallow, Rydal Water having a depth of only 56
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Wordsworth was a real son of Lake District. He was born at Cockermouth on April 7, 1770. Son of John Wordsworth, an attorney, he was second eldest in a family of five. His sister, Dorothy, who also became famous, was born a year later. Wordsworth became associated with the beautiful surroundings of Lakeland early in life. He derived immense pleasure from being in natural surroundings — among mountains, lakes, birds, flowers and clouds. As a boy he wandered all around and was moved by the many faces of nature. In Prelude he tried to recollect some of his early experiences. As a boy, Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where he remained from 1779 to 1787. The headmaster of the school seemed to have recognised poetic talent in him and encouraged him to write poems. His first known verses were written in 1785 to commemorate the school’s two hundredth anniversary. Later on, he went to study at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he remained from 1787 to 1791. He went to France in 1792 where he became an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution. But the terror and excesses which soon followed disappointed him and made him revise his early thinking. After several wanderings, including a stay in Germany, he returned to his native land and along with his sister Dorothy settled down at Dove Cottage in Grasmere in 1799.
Wordsworth lived there for eight years till 1813 and produced some of his greatest works. He wrote inspired poetry, as for example Milton; Westminster Bridge; It is a beauteous evening; The world is too much with us; Lucy Gray; We are seven; Michael; and scores of other brilliant pieces. Dorothy wrote her famous Frasmere Journal. It was here that Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson. It was here that Wordsworth, Coleridge and Dorothy formed a close companionship and not only explored the region around them on foot but also had fruitful discussions about poetry and literature. Lyrical Ballads had just been published in 1798, and it heralded the Romantic Movement in English literature. It had far reaching consequences in the literary world. Whereas Wordsworth "set himself to shed the light of the imagination over real life, over the most ordinary incidents and people," Coleridge took the supernatural for his province; his plan was to project a human interest into romantic themes, and "a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith". After 1813, Wordsworth moved to a new residence, Rydal Mount, where he lived with his sister Dorothy, wife Mary, sister-in-law Sara Hutchinson, and his three surviving children John, Dora and William. Poetically, it was not a fruitful period. He had lost much of his earlier poetic ardour. Still he could write some good poetry, like the River Duddon group and Mutability. Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850 at the age of 80 and was buried in St Oswald’s Churchyard, Grasmere.
The solitude and quiet atmosphere of the Lake District of Wordsworth’s time is charmingly conveyed by the poet in one line, "one bare dwelling, one abode, no more." Such cottages still exist at Langdale, only a couple of miles across the fells from Wordsworth’s cottage at Grasmere. The road up Langdale from Ambleside passing through Elterwater and Langdale villages is one of the classic routes of the Lake District tour. It culminates with an impressive view of the Langdale Pikes across Blea Tarn. The four main peaks — Piko Stickle, Harrison Stickle, Loft Crag and Pavey Ark — are all above 2000 feet, but in their solitude seem much higher. The view of Derwentwater emphasises one of the most striking features of Lake District: the juxtaposition of a gentle scene against the wild background of the fells. It was Ruskin’s favourite spot. In the River Eden valley north of Appleby, the village of Dufton is a welcoming oasis in a world of moorlands and high fells. Here most of the houses are built from the local red sandstone which give the surrounding fields a rich, bronze colour. Many tourists prefer small Loweswater over bigger lakes for its peace and solitude. Wordsworth has immortalised the beauty of Lake District in his poetry. Following are some of the masterpieces: The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, The mountains and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms were then to me An appetite — a feeling and a love. He captures the beauty of nature in consummate masterly strokes as under: Through primrose tufts, in that green bower, The periwinkle trail’d its wreaths, And it is my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes. The birds around me hopp’d and play’d, Their thoughts I cannot measure — But the last motion which they made It seem’d a thrill of pleasure. The following are some of his most famous lines: When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodills, Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. * * * I gazed — and gazed — but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought. Wordsworth’s love of nature has a universal appeal and is relevant today as is clear in the following lines: Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers Little we see in nature that is ours; We have given our hearts, a sordid boon. * * * Great God! I’d rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn, So might I, standing on this lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn. Lake District inculcated the love of
nature in Wordsworth’s heart and he in turn transmitted this love to
millions throughout the world through has poetry. |
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WILLIAM
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey were called
‘lake poets’ because at one time or the other, for shorter or
longer duration, they lived in Lake District of Cumberland and
Westmorland, in north England.
