User:Rae (BYU)/dorothy wordsworth: Difference between revisions
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==Life== |
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* '''Life section''': birth, Cockermouth, third child, parents info, mother death, Threlkeld takes her in until May 1787, age 9 attends boarding school at Hipperholme, father death, guardians transfer her to day school in Halifax, required to leave Halifax and live with grandparetns in Penrith, uncle takes her to live with them at Norfolk, age seventeen has sunday school of nine girls, 1794 arrives in Halifax to visit 'aunt' and see William after three years absence for six weeks, meets William in Bristol, 1797 meets Coleridge and moves with William to Alfoxden and lives there until June 1798, keeps journal at Alfoxden and travels with William and Coleridge to Hamburg for summer (p. 7-9)<ref>{{cite book |last=Woof |first=Pamela |title=Dorothy Wordsworth, Writer |publisher=The Wordsworth Trust |year=1988 |publication-place=Grasmere, Cumbria |url=https://archive.org/embed/dorothywordswort0000woof |url-access=registration |isbn=0-951061-66-6}}</ref> |
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She was born on Christmas Day in [[Cockermouth]], [[Cumberland]], in 1771. Despite the early death of her mother, Dorothy, William and their three brothers had a happy childhood. When in 1783 their father died and the children were sent to live with various relatives, Dorothy was sent alone to live with her aunt, Elizabeth Threlkeld, in [[Halifax, West Yorkshire]]. ('''MACLEAN 7''') After she was able to be reunited with William, firstly at Racedown Lodge in Dorset in 1795 and afterwards (1797/98) at [[Alfoxton House]] in Somerset, they became inseparable companions. The pair lived in poverty at first, and would often beg for cast-off clothes from their friends.('''DEATH OF DW''') |
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William wrote of her in his famous [[Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey|Tintern Abbey]] poem: |
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{{poemquote| |
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Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, |
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My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch |
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The language of my former heart, and read |
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My former pleasures in the shooting lights |
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Of thy wild eyes ... |
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My dear, dear Sister! |
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}} |
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== Writing == |
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Wordsworth was primarily a diarist, and she also wrote poetry though without much interest in becoming an established poet. She almost published her account of traveling in Scotland with William and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1803, ''[[Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland]]'', but a publisher was not found,('''DE SEL vii''') and it would not be published until 1874. |
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She wrote a very early account of an ascent of [[Scafell Pike]] in 1818, climbing the mountain in the company of her friend Mary Barker, Miss Barker's maid, and two local people to act as guide and porter. Dorothy's work was used in 1822 (and later in 1823 and 1835) by her brother William, unattributed, in his popular guide book to the [[Lake District]] – and this was then copied by [[Harriet Martineau]] in her equally successful guide('''MARTINEAU 158–159''') (in its fourth edition by 1876), but with attribution, if only to William Wordsworth. The account was quoted in other guidebooks as well. Consequently, this story was very widely read by the many visitors to the Lake District over more than half of the 19th century.('''SW ON SCAFELL, INTRO TO SCAWFELL''') |
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<!-- the remark about the lack of attribution by William of his sister's work is an important part of this paragraph. See also in this article the quote from the Grasmere Journal and its reminiscence of her brother's poem Daffodils--> |
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She never married, and after William married Mary Hutchinson in 1802, she continued to live with them. She was by now 31 and thought of herself as too old for marriage. In 1829 she fell seriously ill and was to remain an invalid for the remainder of her life. She died at eighty-three in 1855 near [[Ambleside]], having spent the past twenty years in, according to the biographer Richard Cavendish, "a deepening haze of senility".('''DEATH OF DW''') |
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Her ''Grasmere Journal'' was published in 1897, edited by [[William Angus Knight]]. The journal eloquently described her day-to-day life in the Lake District, long walks she and her brother took through the countryside, and detailed portraits of literary lights of the early 19th century, including [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], [[Sir Walter Scott]], [[Charles Lamb (writer)|Charles Lamb]] and [[Robert Southey]], a close friend who popularised the fairytale ''[[Goldilocks and the Three Bears]]''. |
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The ''Grasmere Journal'' and Wordsworth's other works revealed how vital she was to her brother's success. William relied on her detailed accounts of nature scenes and borrowed freely from her journals. For example; |
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{{Blockquote |
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|text=I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. |
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|author=Dorothy Wordsworth |
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|source=''Grasmere Journal'' (15 April 1802)('''EXCERPT''')}} |
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This passage is clearly brought to mind when reading William's "[[I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud|Daffodils]]," where her brother, in this poem of two years later, describes what appears to be the shared experience in the journal as his own solitary observation. Her observations and descriptions have been considered to be as poetic if not more so than those of her brother.('''ELLACOMBE 79''') In her time she was described as being one of the few writers who have lived who could have provided so vivid and picturesque a scene.('''LQR 112''') |
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== Critical reception == |
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Dorothy Wordsworth's works came to light just as literary critics were beginning to re-examine [[Feminist literary criticism|women's role in literature]]. The success of the ''Grasmere Journal'' led to a renewed interest in Wordsworth,('''POLO 66''') and several other journals and collections of her letters have since been published. Scholar Anne Mellor has identified Wordsworth as demonstrating a 'model of affiliation rather than a model of individual achievement',('''MELLOR 186''') more commonly associated with [[Romanticism]].('''GILBERT 32–33''') |
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==Life== |
==Life== |
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* '''Women in romanticism''':<ref>{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Meena |title=Women in Romanticism: Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Shelley |year=1989 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |url=https://archive.org/embed/womeninromantici0000alex |url-access=registration |isbn=0-389-20884-1}}</ref> |
* '''Women in romanticism''':<ref>{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Meena |title=Women in Romanticism: Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Shelley |year=1989 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |url=https://archive.org/embed/womeninromantici0000alex |url-access=registration |isbn=0-389-20884-1}}</ref> |
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* '''DW and CR poetics''':<ref>{{cite book |last=Healey |first=Nicola |title=Dorothy Wordsworth and Hartley Coleridge: The Poetics of Relationship |year=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0230277724}}</ref> |
* '''DW and CR poetics''':<ref>{{cite book |last=Healey |first=Nicola |title=Dorothy Wordsworth and Hartley Coleridge: The Poetics of Relationship |year=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0230277724}}</ref> |
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* '''DW, Writer''':<ref>{{cite book |last=Woof |first=Pamela |title=Dorothy Wordsworth, Writer |publisher=The Wordsworth Trust |year=1988 |publication-place=Grasmere, Cumbria |url=https://archive.org/embed/dorothywordswort0000woof |url-access=registration |isbn=0-951061-66-6}}</ref>{{rp|chronology 7–15}} |
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* '''''':<ref>{{cite book |last= |first= |title= |year= |publisher= |isbn=}}</ref> |
* '''''':<ref>{{cite book |last= |first= |title= |year= |publisher= |isbn=}}</ref> |
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==Notes== |
==Notes== |
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Revision as of 23:39, 4 April 2024
Life
She was born on Christmas Day in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1771. Despite the early death of her mother, Dorothy, William and their three brothers had a happy childhood. When in 1783 their father died and the children were sent to live with various relatives, Dorothy was sent alone to live with her aunt, Elizabeth Threlkeld, in Halifax, West Yorkshire. (MACLEAN 7) After she was able to be reunited with William, firstly at Racedown Lodge in Dorset in 1795 and afterwards (1797/98) at Alfoxton House in Somerset, they became inseparable companions. The pair lived in poverty at first, and would often beg for cast-off clothes from their friends.(DEATH OF DW)
William wrote of her in his famous Tintern Abbey poem:
Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes ...
My dear, dear Sister!
Writing
Wordsworth was primarily a diarist, and she also wrote poetry though without much interest in becoming an established poet. She almost published her account of traveling in Scotland with William and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1803, Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, but a publisher was not found,(DE SEL vii) and it would not be published until 1874.
She wrote a very early account of an ascent of Scafell Pike in 1818, climbing the mountain in the company of her friend Mary Barker, Miss Barker's maid, and two local people to act as guide and porter. Dorothy's work was used in 1822 (and later in 1823 and 1835) by her brother William, unattributed, in his popular guide book to the Lake District – and this was then copied by Harriet Martineau in her equally successful guide(MARTINEAU 158–159) (in its fourth edition by 1876), but with attribution, if only to William Wordsworth. The account was quoted in other guidebooks as well. Consequently, this story was very widely read by the many visitors to the Lake District over more than half of the 19th century.(SW ON SCAFELL, INTRO TO SCAWFELL)
She never married, and after William married Mary Hutchinson in 1802, she continued to live with them. She was by now 31 and thought of herself as too old for marriage. In 1829 she fell seriously ill and was to remain an invalid for the remainder of her life. She died at eighty-three in 1855 near Ambleside, having spent the past twenty years in, according to the biographer Richard Cavendish, "a deepening haze of senility".(DEATH OF DW)
Her Grasmere Journal was published in 1897, edited by William Angus Knight. The journal eloquently described her day-to-day life in the Lake District, long walks she and her brother took through the countryside, and detailed portraits of literary lights of the early 19th century, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Lamb and Robert Southey, a close friend who popularised the fairytale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
The Grasmere Journal and Wordsworth's other works revealed how vital she was to her brother's success. William relied on her detailed accounts of nature scenes and borrowed freely from her journals. For example;
I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing.
— Dorothy Wordsworth, Grasmere Journal (15 April 1802)(EXCERPT)
This passage is clearly brought to mind when reading William's "Daffodils," where her brother, in this poem of two years later, describes what appears to be the shared experience in the journal as his own solitary observation. Her observations and descriptions have been considered to be as poetic if not more so than those of her brother.(ELLACOMBE 79) In her time she was described as being one of the few writers who have lived who could have provided so vivid and picturesque a scene.(LQR 112)
Critical reception
Dorothy Wordsworth's works came to light just as literary critics were beginning to re-examine women's role in literature. The success of the Grasmere Journal led to a renewed interest in Wordsworth,(POLO 66) and several other journals and collections of her letters have since been published. Scholar Anne Mellor has identified Wordsworth as demonstrating a 'model of affiliation rather than a model of individual achievement',(MELLOR 186) more commonly associated with Romanticism.(GILBERT 32–33)
Life
- Death of DW: buried in churchyard in England at Grasmere in the Lake District with William, William's wife, and other family, remembered for diaries not published until years after her death, started first journal in 1798, friendship with Coleridge and created Lyrical Ballads, end of 1799 Dove Cottage in Grasmere, year younger than William, parents died when children and she and William were close, lived in poverty, "cast-off clothes", "unconventional person" who took long walks in the country, never married, remained member of household when William married in 1802 (age 31), decided too old for marriage, rumours of incest with William baseless but close relationship, didn't attend William's wedding and eventually stopped keeping her diary, 1813 Wordsworths moved to Rydal Mount, D fell ill in 1829 and was an "invalid", age 60s-84 (death) "deepening haze of senility", William looked after Dorothy during his last years until his death in 1850, D journals first published in 1897.[1]
- Grasmere journals: no job outside of house, no strict routine, journal conveys the "unpremeditated rhythms" of her and William's lives (p1), Tintern Abbey: "Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,/My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch/The language of my former heart, and read/My former pleasures in the shooting lights/Of thy wild eyes, Oh! yet a little while/May I behold in thee what I was once" (xiii), journal reflects moments of "overwhelming feeling", not writing for strangers but Wordsworth only (xv), private diary, daily life of a poet (WW) from his sister's pov and without focus on him, details of daffodils for WW, "She gave me eyes, she gave me ears", "Dorothy's way of seeing, when she purposively set out to produce a 'character', was to capture first of all the detail of appearance" (xvi), [interpretation of her goal w writing xvii], many revisions of the journal, dorothy's care was for william and the stress writing poems gave him, looked after WW, journal contents: (settling of house and garden, composition of poetry, WW marriage and the return), ends in early 1803 with completion of notebook[2]
Writing
Critical reception
- Profession of authorship:[3]
- Recovering Dorothy:[4]
- DW & Romanticism:[5]
- Poetry of relationship:[6]
- All in each other:[7]
- Rebels and con:[8]
- Women writers [check pub date]:[9]
- Women in romanticism:[10]
- DW and CR poetics:[11]
- DW, Writer:[12]: chronology 7–15
- ':[13]
Notes
- ^ Cavendish, Richard (January 2005). "Death of Dorothy Wordsworth: January 25th, 1855". History Today. Vol. 55, no. 1. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- ^ Wordsworth, Dorothy (1991). "Introduction". In Woof, Pamela (ed.). Dorothy Wordsworth: The Grasmere Journals. Oxford University Press. pp. ix–xxii. ISBN 0-19-283130-5.
- ^ Smith, Ken Edward; Crehan, Stewart (2011). "A Brief Chronology". Dorothy Wordsworth and the Profession of Authorship: A Critical Commentary on Her Letters, Journals, Life Writing, and Poetry. The Edwin Mellen Press. pp. xxi–xxvi. ISBN 978-0-7734-1533-1.
- ^ Atkin, Polly (2022). Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth. Saraband. ISBN 978-1-91-339317-5.
- ^ Levin, Susan M. (1987). Dorothy Wordsworth & Romanticism. New Brunswick: Rutgers, The State University. ISBN 0-8135-1146-1.
- ^ Matlak, Richard E. (1997). The Poetry of Relationship: The Wordsworths and Coleridge, 1797–1800. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-10166-X.
- ^ Newlyn, Lucy (2013). William and Dorothy Wordsworth: 'All in Each Other'. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969639-0.
- ^ Ellis, Amanda M. (1967). Rebels and Conservatives: Dorothy and William Wordsworth and Their Circle. Indiana University Press. LCCN 67-13021.
- ^ Homans, Margaret (2014). Women Writers and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-69-106440-6.
- ^ Alexander, Meena (1989). Women in Romanticism: Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Shelley. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 0-389-20884-1.
- ^ Healey, Nicola (2012). Dorothy Wordsworth and Hartley Coleridge: The Poetics of Relationship. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230277724.
- ^ Woof, Pamela (1988). Dorothy Wordsworth, Writer. Grasmere, Cumbria: The Wordsworth Trust. ISBN 0-951061-66-6.
- ^
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