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The Grasmere Journals
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.
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.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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323 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Wordsworth
97 books36 followersDorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth was an English poet and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close for all of their lives. Dorothy Wordsworth did not set out to be an author, and her writings comprise a series of letters, diary entries, and short stories.
She also edited much of William’s work. She was one of two people he attributed to the development of his intellect. Without her he would never have achieved such poetic heights.
She also edited much of William’s work. She was one of two people he attributed to the development of his intellect. Without her he would never have achieved such poetic heights.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 11, 2021
Romanticismo quotidiano
"Grasmere aveva un'aria solenne nell'ultima luce del crepuscolo. Faceva scendere la pace in cuore" .
Grasmere è una suggestiva località inglese, un magnifico luogo di alture boscose e placidi laghi. Qui abitò per lunghi decenni Dorothy, insieme al celebre fratello, il grande poeta Wordsworth (chi desidera vedere l'incanto dei luoghi e il fascino discreto delle dimore da loro abitate, e ora aperte al pubblico, può accedervi con Internet cliccando su "Grasmere").
Questi "diari" furono scritti da Dorothy con lo scopo di illustrare al fratello quanto accadeva e osservava, specie durante le sue assenze, come spunto per le sue poesie.
Come possiamo constatare, anche lei era molto dotata per la scrittura letteraria. Al tempo però era poco concepibile che una donna, per giunta sorella di un grande poeta, aspirasse ad essere scrittrice. Ebbene, con queste belle pagine, quasi a sua insaputa (?), lei lo è stata : la sua nitida prosa è avvolta da un tocco poetico, di cui era improntata la sua stessa vita quotidiana. Il Romanticismo come modalità di vivere e di sentire, e non solo di scrivere.
Un libro di grande fascino, che amo particolarmente, da leggere e rileggere di tanto in tanto, anche solo qualche pagina per trovarvi la dimensione serena che viene emanata.
"Stamattina sono andata fino al lago, raccolto piante e letto le "Ballate" seduta su una roccia". Raccoglieva fragole selvatiche e lamponi, magari in compagnia del poeta Coleridge, amico fraterno, spesso ospite. Oppure timo, che trapiantava nell'orto amorevolmente curato.
La solitudine non le dispiaceva : "grazie a Dio, non ho bisogno di compagnia davanti a un lago illuminato dalla luna".
"E' stata una mattinata incantevole. Tutto verde e traboccante di vita; i ruscelli cantavano senza posa" ; "tutta la vallata profumava di mirica e timo selvatico. I boschi intorno alla cascata venati dell'oro intenso della ginestra".
Ogni cosa pareva sorprenderla: il candore del biancospino, le rose selvatiche; e lasciava libera l'immaginazione: "Le onde attorno all'isoletta sembravano una danza di spiriti che sorgevano dalle acque".
Annotava anche : "... è passata una donna altissima (...). Indossava un lunghissimo mantello marrone e un cappello candido (...). Teneva per mano un bambinetto scalzo (...). Le ho dato un pezzo di pane". Da questa osservazione è nata una delle più celebri composizioni del poeta William Wordswotth.
"Grasmere aveva un'aria solenne nell'ultima luce del crepuscolo. Faceva scendere la pace in cuore" .
Grasmere è una suggestiva località inglese, un magnifico luogo di alture boscose e placidi laghi. Qui abitò per lunghi decenni Dorothy, insieme al celebre fratello, il grande poeta Wordsworth (chi desidera vedere l'incanto dei luoghi e il fascino discreto delle dimore da loro abitate, e ora aperte al pubblico, può accedervi con Internet cliccando su "Grasmere").
Questi "diari" furono scritti da Dorothy con lo scopo di illustrare al fratello quanto accadeva e osservava, specie durante le sue assenze, come spunto per le sue poesie.
Come possiamo constatare, anche lei era molto dotata per la scrittura letteraria. Al tempo però era poco concepibile che una donna, per giunta sorella di un grande poeta, aspirasse ad essere scrittrice. Ebbene, con queste belle pagine, quasi a sua insaputa (?), lei lo è stata : la sua nitida prosa è avvolta da un tocco poetico, di cui era improntata la sua stessa vita quotidiana. Il Romanticismo come modalità di vivere e di sentire, e non solo di scrivere.
Un libro di grande fascino, che amo particolarmente, da leggere e rileggere di tanto in tanto, anche solo qualche pagina per trovarvi la dimensione serena che viene emanata.
"Stamattina sono andata fino al lago, raccolto piante e letto le "Ballate" seduta su una roccia". Raccoglieva fragole selvatiche e lamponi, magari in compagnia del poeta Coleridge, amico fraterno, spesso ospite. Oppure timo, che trapiantava nell'orto amorevolmente curato.
La solitudine non le dispiaceva : "grazie a Dio, non ho bisogno di compagnia davanti a un lago illuminato dalla luna".
"E' stata una mattinata incantevole. Tutto verde e traboccante di vita; i ruscelli cantavano senza posa" ; "tutta la vallata profumava di mirica e timo selvatico. I boschi intorno alla cascata venati dell'oro intenso della ginestra".
Ogni cosa pareva sorprenderla: il candore del biancospino, le rose selvatiche; e lasciava libera l'immaginazione: "Le onde attorno all'isoletta sembravano una danza di spiriti che sorgevano dalle acque".
Annotava anche : "... è passata una donna altissima (...). Indossava un lunghissimo mantello marrone e un cappello candido (...). Teneva per mano un bambinetto scalzo (...). Le ho dato un pezzo di pane". Da questa osservazione è nata una delle più celebri composizioni del poeta William Wordswotth.
July 13, 2018
Joyously mundane. Such a simple life. Long walks, neighbours, getting the post, reading Shakespeare, toothache, chats with Coleridge and growing vegetables. Just wonderful.
November 6, 2017
Lots of tenderly, closely observed skies, lakes, birds, mosses, flowers. Devotion to the brother and famous poet and some just repining when it's a really wonderful day outside and William is too occupied with writing or too tired from writing to walk. Continual charity to, and storytelling with, a string of unfortunate travelers.
And the notes were so informative that I spent a good deal of happy time rummaging around in them.
And the notes were so informative that I spent a good deal of happy time rummaging around in them.
March 6, 2023
Dorothy Wordsworth, tal como o seu irmão o famoso poeta romântico William Wordsworth, devia ser celebrada pela sua alma poética e a capacidade de captar a beleza na simplicidade dos momentos. Estes fragmentos da sua vida correspondem há algumas das páginas intimas mais belíssimas que li. Nelas a diarista descreve os bosques, o vale de Grasmere, a relação de intrínseca amizade que mantinha com os irmãos e momentos de convívio com os seus vizinhos. Por momentos parece que viajei para o século XIX, e me encontro num dos inúmeros passeios campestres que Dorothy realizou com William ou observo-a a ajudar o seu irmão nos seus poemas.
November 4, 2013
I liked this book very much despite the lack of plot. Written as a diary over a three year period in the early 19th century (1801- 1803) by Dorothy, William Wordworth's sister. She writes about the simple routines and visits of daily life, and if you read and read you get into the flow of their lives, and her life with her brother comes very much alive. I wonder if the book would have been seen worth publishing had she not been Wordworth's sister and had they not had many meetings with Coleridge and other literary luminaries? This book was also interesting because it brought to life scenes from fiction f the period but in a nonfiction setting, so it sort of validated Jane Austen and George Eliot's (later period though) work for me. And, finally the book inspires me to try and bit of diary entry format for my blog about farm life in the Columbia River Basin in Oregon.
February 25, 2024
Solid.
November 16, 2016
Una sorpresa questi diari...una lettura emozionante, rilassante, edificante. Un viaggio a ritroso nel tempo, 200 anni indietro e ritrovarsi improvvisamente a rivivere la quotidianità di una donna come tante eppur straordinaria, in un angolo tra i più rinomati d'Inghilterra, quel Lake District, che ispirò la più bella poesia romantica di Wordsworth.
I diari nn erano stati concepiti per essere pubblicati, infatti lo stile narrativo a tratti è essenziale, oserei dire laconico, come quando scandisce i ritmi della giornata attraverso le varie incombenze quotidiane: preparare il pane, gli sformati, le torte di uvaspina, i lavori di rammendo e cucito, poi i tè con i vicini, le scarpinate fino a Rydal per ritirare la posta.
Poi improvvisamente tutto cambia quando entra in ballo la natura e allora senti davvero l'emozione palpitare nel cuore di Dorothy, le decrizioni diventano minuziose, cesellate: le passeggiate tra i boschi, le valli, la solennità delle rocce, la placidità dei laghi, l'incanto delle notti stellate, i colori e i profumi dei fiori, il canto degli uccelli. Tutto è armonia e pace, anche nell'asperità di certe giornate di freddo e di pioggia, attraverso i suoi occhi e la purezza delle sue descrizioni senti che qualcosa di glorioso sta per nascere, un qualcosa che prenderà vita nelle poesie del fratello che da questi diari traeva ispirazione. Dorothy è un'attenta osservatrice anche dei tipi umani che incontra in prossimità di Dove Cottage o durante le sue frequenti passeggiate, personaggi che ritrae con grande maestria e dovizia di particolari. Durante questi incontri fortuiti con viandanti, mendicanti, soldati senti la sua empatia. la sua umanità. Non a caso qualcuno di questi personaggi verrà poi immortalato nelle poesie di William...
Bellissimo il rapporto tra i due fratelli, quasi di abnegazione da parte di Dorothy, che lo accudisce, lo sostiene, ricopia e trascrive le sue poesie, assiste ai suoi turbamenti, alle fatiche della scrittura. Le loro letture davanti al camino, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Johnson, le Lyrical Ballads...le visite di Coleridge, altro animo inquieto, i lavori in giardino, la compagnia degli amici più cari...
E così pagina dopo pagina diventi partecipe di un mondo che è stato, e che rivive e rivivi con grande emozione e partecipazione perchè vita vera, vissuta, sofferta di una donna e due uomini ignari di diventare leggenda...
I diari nn erano stati concepiti per essere pubblicati, infatti lo stile narrativo a tratti è essenziale, oserei dire laconico, come quando scandisce i ritmi della giornata attraverso le varie incombenze quotidiane: preparare il pane, gli sformati, le torte di uvaspina, i lavori di rammendo e cucito, poi i tè con i vicini, le scarpinate fino a Rydal per ritirare la posta.
Poi improvvisamente tutto cambia quando entra in ballo la natura e allora senti davvero l'emozione palpitare nel cuore di Dorothy, le decrizioni diventano minuziose, cesellate: le passeggiate tra i boschi, le valli, la solennità delle rocce, la placidità dei laghi, l'incanto delle notti stellate, i colori e i profumi dei fiori, il canto degli uccelli. Tutto è armonia e pace, anche nell'asperità di certe giornate di freddo e di pioggia, attraverso i suoi occhi e la purezza delle sue descrizioni senti che qualcosa di glorioso sta per nascere, un qualcosa che prenderà vita nelle poesie del fratello che da questi diari traeva ispirazione. Dorothy è un'attenta osservatrice anche dei tipi umani che incontra in prossimità di Dove Cottage o durante le sue frequenti passeggiate, personaggi che ritrae con grande maestria e dovizia di particolari. Durante questi incontri fortuiti con viandanti, mendicanti, soldati senti la sua empatia. la sua umanità. Non a caso qualcuno di questi personaggi verrà poi immortalato nelle poesie di William...
Bellissimo il rapporto tra i due fratelli, quasi di abnegazione da parte di Dorothy, che lo accudisce, lo sostiene, ricopia e trascrive le sue poesie, assiste ai suoi turbamenti, alle fatiche della scrittura. Le loro letture davanti al camino, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Johnson, le Lyrical Ballads...le visite di Coleridge, altro animo inquieto, i lavori in giardino, la compagnia degli amici più cari...
E così pagina dopo pagina diventi partecipe di un mondo che è stato, e che rivive e rivivi con grande emozione e partecipazione perchè vita vera, vissuta, sofferta di una donna e due uomini ignari di diventare leggenda...
August 1, 2022
Didn’t deserve to be over shadowed by her brother smh
November 1, 2025
Billed as “possibly the best beloved journals”, the Grasmere Journal is simple, rustic, and without any drama. Lot of “Drank tea at X’s; Y dined with us; it was so hot; William was sick, etc”. There is an occasional beggar or “leech collector” visiting. The biggest drama was the trip the author took with her brother William to marry Mary. At the end of the collection, there’s also the poems written by William. Those are also simple and rustic.
April 28, 2022
HER WRITING STYLE GIVES ME LIKE I LOVE THE DESCRIPTIONS (I'm like 90% sure he borrowed some of her work for his poems)
anyone else think there was something a bit weird going on between Dorothy and William Wordsworth?
anyone else think there was something a bit weird going on between Dorothy and William Wordsworth?
October 20, 2024
Cracking stuff. She's great on sadness and she's great on the moon. Subtle but rich.
January 25, 2022
ITA-ENG
Un paio di mesi fa ho frequentato un corso su Wordsworth e di conseguenza su Dorothy, sua sorella. Ovviamente meno conosciuta, ma incredibilmente importante per William. E viceversa. I diari sono ambientati a Grasmere (e un paio di episodi in viaggio), un luogo meraviglioso, una prima vera casa per William e Dorothy. Le parole di Dorothy offrono uno spaccato della vita quotidiana di quei tempi (e tante passeggiate sotto la pioggia) reso unico dal magnifico spirito di osservazione di Dorothy e dal suo sguardo attento e preciso. Riusciamo anche a cogliere la potenza del rapporto tra Dorothy e William. Un rapporto fuori dal comune, pieno di tenerezza, comprensione, creatività. Dorothy scrive per William. Per nessun altro. E lui trae ispirazioni dalle sue descrizioni. C'è tanto da esplorare: l'amicizia tra Dorothy e Coleridge (e tra Coleridge e Wordsworth), il legame profondo e indissolubile del poeta e della sorella con la Natura (dove lo troviamo oggi un rapporto così?), l'idea di appartenenza a un luogo, l'idea di apertura verso storie diverse dalle nostre anche come fonte d'ispirazione, la malinconia di perdere un po' di ciò che amiamo e ciò che ci rende speciali (la reazione di Dorothy al matrimonio del fratello ne è un forte esempio). Qui non si tratta di una donna relegata all'ombra di un uomo. Dorothy è una scrittrice e le sue parole sono piene di bellezza. La sua mente non meritava il triste declino che ha incontrato, eppure ciò che mi rimane di più è il suo ardore, la sua voglia di vivere ogni secondo e ogni centimetro dello spazio interno a lei, la sua devozione verso le persone che amava e che traspare da ogni parola che scrive. "Oggi mi si è spezzato un dente. Presto non ne avrò più uno. Passerà. Sarò amata lo stesso. Non chiedo altro."
A couple of months ago I took a course on Wordsworth and consequently on Dorothy, his sister. She is of course less known, but she was extremely important to William. And vice versa. The diaries are written while at Grasmere (with a few episodes of travelling), a wonderful place, a real first home for Dorothy and William. Dorothy's words offer a picture of what life was back then (and a lot of walks under the rain). This picture is made unique by her power of observation and by her precise and attentive gaze. We can understand the intensity of her relationship with William. An extraordinary relationship, full of tenderness, understanding, creativity. Dorothy writes for William. For no one else. And he draws inspiration from her lively descriptions. There is a lot to explore here: the friendship between Dorothy and Coleridge (and between Coleridge and Wordsworth), the deep and lasting bond of William and Dorothy with Nature (a bond that you can't find nowadays), the idea of true belonging to a place, of opening ourselves to stories that are different from ours even as a source of inspiration, the melancholy of losing what we love or what makes us special (Dorothy's reaction to William's wedding is a strong example of this). We're not talking about a woman living in the shadow of a man. Dorothy is a writer and her words are full of beauty. Her mind did not deserve the sad decline it encountered. What stays with me, though, is her passion, her desire of living every second and every millimeter of the places she was surrounded by, her devotion to the people she loved, which shines through every word she's written. “My tooth broke today. They will soon be gone. Let that pass, I shall be beloved – I want no more”
Un paio di mesi fa ho frequentato un corso su Wordsworth e di conseguenza su Dorothy, sua sorella. Ovviamente meno conosciuta, ma incredibilmente importante per William. E viceversa. I diari sono ambientati a Grasmere (e un paio di episodi in viaggio), un luogo meraviglioso, una prima vera casa per William e Dorothy. Le parole di Dorothy offrono uno spaccato della vita quotidiana di quei tempi (e tante passeggiate sotto la pioggia) reso unico dal magnifico spirito di osservazione di Dorothy e dal suo sguardo attento e preciso. Riusciamo anche a cogliere la potenza del rapporto tra Dorothy e William. Un rapporto fuori dal comune, pieno di tenerezza, comprensione, creatività. Dorothy scrive per William. Per nessun altro. E lui trae ispirazioni dalle sue descrizioni. C'è tanto da esplorare: l'amicizia tra Dorothy e Coleridge (e tra Coleridge e Wordsworth), il legame profondo e indissolubile del poeta e della sorella con la Natura (dove lo troviamo oggi un rapporto così?), l'idea di appartenenza a un luogo, l'idea di apertura verso storie diverse dalle nostre anche come fonte d'ispirazione, la malinconia di perdere un po' di ciò che amiamo e ciò che ci rende speciali (la reazione di Dorothy al matrimonio del fratello ne è un forte esempio). Qui non si tratta di una donna relegata all'ombra di un uomo. Dorothy è una scrittrice e le sue parole sono piene di bellezza. La sua mente non meritava il triste declino che ha incontrato, eppure ciò che mi rimane di più è il suo ardore, la sua voglia di vivere ogni secondo e ogni centimetro dello spazio interno a lei, la sua devozione verso le persone che amava e che traspare da ogni parola che scrive. "Oggi mi si è spezzato un dente. Presto non ne avrò più uno. Passerà. Sarò amata lo stesso. Non chiedo altro."
A couple of months ago I took a course on Wordsworth and consequently on Dorothy, his sister. She is of course less known, but she was extremely important to William. And vice versa. The diaries are written while at Grasmere (with a few episodes of travelling), a wonderful place, a real first home for Dorothy and William. Dorothy's words offer a picture of what life was back then (and a lot of walks under the rain). This picture is made unique by her power of observation and by her precise and attentive gaze. We can understand the intensity of her relationship with William. An extraordinary relationship, full of tenderness, understanding, creativity. Dorothy writes for William. For no one else. And he draws inspiration from her lively descriptions. There is a lot to explore here: the friendship between Dorothy and Coleridge (and between Coleridge and Wordsworth), the deep and lasting bond of William and Dorothy with Nature (a bond that you can't find nowadays), the idea of true belonging to a place, of opening ourselves to stories that are different from ours even as a source of inspiration, the melancholy of losing what we love or what makes us special (Dorothy's reaction to William's wedding is a strong example of this). We're not talking about a woman living in the shadow of a man. Dorothy is a writer and her words are full of beauty. Her mind did not deserve the sad decline it encountered. What stays with me, though, is her passion, her desire of living every second and every millimeter of the places she was surrounded by, her devotion to the people she loved, which shines through every word she's written. “My tooth broke today. They will soon be gone. Let that pass, I shall be beloved – I want no more”
September 21, 2017
In the Romantic period of Literature revolutions of political, social and sciences were taking place. Two very different streams of thought contended that either man embraced the time held traditions of their forefathers or that they accept that a new enlightened age was coming complete with new ideas of equality.
Author Dorothy Wordsworth writes in her “Grasmere Journals” a picture of the castoffs of an enlightened society framed by the beauty and grandeur around them. Yet in their degraded state she seems oblivious of the circumstances of the society that spawned them. Men of power held noble titles that enslaved the men and women of numerous countries by a system of both Monarchial and religious preferences.
She mentions in one place the women beggar describing to her the death of her first husband for desertion, apparently because he had seen the evils of slavery first hand. “ I have been in the West Indies- lost the use of this Finger just before he died he came to me and said he must bid me farewell to his dear children and me…He was shot directly,” (Dorothy Wordsworth,464).
Dorothy saw the inventions of the industrial age as interference to an age of innocence; yet she readily bid farewell to her place as an author in her own right. “But I have no command of the languages, no power of expressing my ideas, and no one was more inapt at molding words into regular metre,” (Dorothy Wordsworth, p.471). Her thoughts apparently were influenced by her brother’s. If you examine William Wordsworth’s Poem “The Tables Turned” you will see his view is very much like his sister Dorothy’s. “Enough of science and of art; Close up these barren leaves; Come forth, and bring with you a heart That watches and receives,” (Wordsworth,327).
We see a very different picture from Mary Wollstonecraft whom embraces revolution of the political as well as social kind. She speaks with a heart and mind that focuses on refuting every word in Edmund Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”. Wollstonecraft especially saw through the ruse of Mr. Burkes attempt to justify the Monarchy of the French revolution through the age old excuse of patriotic duty rather than natural feelings and common sense. “My indignation was roused by the sophistical arguments, that every moment crossed me, in the questionable shape of natural feelings and common sense,” (Mary Wollstonecraft, 67).
The common sense that Mary Wollstonecraft saw was that enlightenment meant that the “Cult of Sensibility” was no longer thee end all be all, for “justice is left to mourn in sullen silence, and balance truth in vain,” (Mary Wollstonecraft,67). Mary alliterates this justice as equal freedoms for all by removing hereditary property and hereditary honors. She decries the falsehood of gothic notions of beauty by replacing it with reason. “That true happiness arose from the friendship and intimacy which can only be enjoyed by equals; and that charity is not a condescending distribution of alms, but intercourse of good offices and mutual benefits , founded on respect for justice and humanity,” (Mary Wollstonecraft, 68).
The intersection of ideas between both Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Wollstonecraft resulted in an upheaval against traditional mores. Both embraced the idea of beauty, but where Dorothy thought it meant bending to the adoration of men through keeping silent In the political realm; Mary Wollstonecraft felt the rights of women needed to become focused. Better education improved social manners.
“In 1792 Wollstonecraft urged (a revolution in female manners) and at the end of the decade, Wordsworth’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads announced his break with “Known habits of association” in the genre of poetry-a program , as his collaborator Coleridge later said , of “awakening the minds attention from the lethargy of custom,”(Damrosh, 4).
Certain ideas are manifested in the poems and essays of the Romantic Period that either support or oppose customs of old. Some of these ideas are romantically connected through ideals that connect the ancient paths of feudal morals. Some things such as in the line of medicine would have been seen as witchcraft when practiced by women, yet even in the Ancient Literature of the Akkadian one finds warnings against technological inventions and pleas for medicinal herbs. “I am infected and beset by people’s wicked machinations, the fury of my (personal) god and goddess and humankind are against me, my dreams are terrifying, awful evil, My signs and omens are confused and have no clear interpretation…May the herbs and salves you cherish drive out my faults, may they let no divine fury or anger come nigh me, May they release me from affliction, crime, or sin,” (Foster, p.195).
The sin of slaveries machinations or the bondage of laws that forbid a women’s vote in civil matters was mutually razed against by both women. The healing came by way of education of both women. Even Dorothy acquiesced, when faced with six orphaned children she learned that for everything there is a season, even that women should speak their mind as authors for the sake of the innocent. “But by publishing this narrative of mine I should bring the children toward to notice as individuals,” (Dorothy Wordsworth, p. 473).
The thought of freeing the enslaved, be it from the slavery of the whip or the slavery of oppression was always shared by both ladies. Mary Wollstonecraft expressed her outrage against slavery in the following lines, “A father may dissipate his property without his child having the right to complain;-but should he attempt to sell him for a slave, or fetter him with laws contrary to reason; nature, in enabling him to discern good from evil, teaches him to break the ignoble chain, and not believe that bread becomes flesh, and wine blood, because his parents swallowed the Eucharest with this blind persuasion,” (Wollstonecraft, 69).
Two very different streams of thought contended through laws that taught either man embraced the time held traditions of their forefathers or that they accept that a new enlightened age was coming complete with new ideas of equality. These laws were slowly melding together into a crucible that allowed both imagination and reason to envision a world of many new possibilities. Revolutions that were once opposed by former authors now seemed to justify both authors. Revolution it seemed, be it in education of woman and the masses, or a Revolution of Independence for a country served to help break one more ignorable chain.
Damrosh, David Expostulation & Reply. The Longman Anthology of British Literature,Vol2A: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries,1999
Foster, R. Benjamin. Akkadian Literature. Ehrlich, Carl S., ed. From An Antique Land:An introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature. Lantham,MD:Rowman and Littlefield, 2009
Author Dorothy Wordsworth writes in her “Grasmere Journals” a picture of the castoffs of an enlightened society framed by the beauty and grandeur around them. Yet in their degraded state she seems oblivious of the circumstances of the society that spawned them. Men of power held noble titles that enslaved the men and women of numerous countries by a system of both Monarchial and religious preferences.
She mentions in one place the women beggar describing to her the death of her first husband for desertion, apparently because he had seen the evils of slavery first hand. “ I have been in the West Indies- lost the use of this Finger just before he died he came to me and said he must bid me farewell to his dear children and me…He was shot directly,” (Dorothy Wordsworth,464).
Dorothy saw the inventions of the industrial age as interference to an age of innocence; yet she readily bid farewell to her place as an author in her own right. “But I have no command of the languages, no power of expressing my ideas, and no one was more inapt at molding words into regular metre,” (Dorothy Wordsworth, p.471). Her thoughts apparently were influenced by her brother’s. If you examine William Wordsworth’s Poem “The Tables Turned” you will see his view is very much like his sister Dorothy’s. “Enough of science and of art; Close up these barren leaves; Come forth, and bring with you a heart That watches and receives,” (Wordsworth,327).
We see a very different picture from Mary Wollstonecraft whom embraces revolution of the political as well as social kind. She speaks with a heart and mind that focuses on refuting every word in Edmund Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”. Wollstonecraft especially saw through the ruse of Mr. Burkes attempt to justify the Monarchy of the French revolution through the age old excuse of patriotic duty rather than natural feelings and common sense. “My indignation was roused by the sophistical arguments, that every moment crossed me, in the questionable shape of natural feelings and common sense,” (Mary Wollstonecraft, 67).
The common sense that Mary Wollstonecraft saw was that enlightenment meant that the “Cult of Sensibility” was no longer thee end all be all, for “justice is left to mourn in sullen silence, and balance truth in vain,” (Mary Wollstonecraft,67). Mary alliterates this justice as equal freedoms for all by removing hereditary property and hereditary honors. She decries the falsehood of gothic notions of beauty by replacing it with reason. “That true happiness arose from the friendship and intimacy which can only be enjoyed by equals; and that charity is not a condescending distribution of alms, but intercourse of good offices and mutual benefits , founded on respect for justice and humanity,” (Mary Wollstonecraft, 68).
The intersection of ideas between both Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Wollstonecraft resulted in an upheaval against traditional mores. Both embraced the idea of beauty, but where Dorothy thought it meant bending to the adoration of men through keeping silent In the political realm; Mary Wollstonecraft felt the rights of women needed to become focused. Better education improved social manners.
“In 1792 Wollstonecraft urged (a revolution in female manners) and at the end of the decade, Wordsworth’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads announced his break with “Known habits of association” in the genre of poetry-a program , as his collaborator Coleridge later said , of “awakening the minds attention from the lethargy of custom,”(Damrosh, 4).
Certain ideas are manifested in the poems and essays of the Romantic Period that either support or oppose customs of old. Some of these ideas are romantically connected through ideals that connect the ancient paths of feudal morals. Some things such as in the line of medicine would have been seen as witchcraft when practiced by women, yet even in the Ancient Literature of the Akkadian one finds warnings against technological inventions and pleas for medicinal herbs. “I am infected and beset by people’s wicked machinations, the fury of my (personal) god and goddess and humankind are against me, my dreams are terrifying, awful evil, My signs and omens are confused and have no clear interpretation…May the herbs and salves you cherish drive out my faults, may they let no divine fury or anger come nigh me, May they release me from affliction, crime, or sin,” (Foster, p.195).
The sin of slaveries machinations or the bondage of laws that forbid a women’s vote in civil matters was mutually razed against by both women. The healing came by way of education of both women. Even Dorothy acquiesced, when faced with six orphaned children she learned that for everything there is a season, even that women should speak their mind as authors for the sake of the innocent. “But by publishing this narrative of mine I should bring the children toward to notice as individuals,” (Dorothy Wordsworth, p. 473).
The thought of freeing the enslaved, be it from the slavery of the whip or the slavery of oppression was always shared by both ladies. Mary Wollstonecraft expressed her outrage against slavery in the following lines, “A father may dissipate his property without his child having the right to complain;-but should he attempt to sell him for a slave, or fetter him with laws contrary to reason; nature, in enabling him to discern good from evil, teaches him to break the ignoble chain, and not believe that bread becomes flesh, and wine blood, because his parents swallowed the Eucharest with this blind persuasion,” (Wollstonecraft, 69).
Two very different streams of thought contended through laws that taught either man embraced the time held traditions of their forefathers or that they accept that a new enlightened age was coming complete with new ideas of equality. These laws were slowly melding together into a crucible that allowed both imagination and reason to envision a world of many new possibilities. Revolutions that were once opposed by former authors now seemed to justify both authors. Revolution it seemed, be it in education of woman and the masses, or a Revolution of Independence for a country served to help break one more ignorable chain.
Damrosh, David Expostulation & Reply. The Longman Anthology of British Literature,Vol2A: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries,1999
Foster, R. Benjamin. Akkadian Literature. Ehrlich, Carl S., ed. From An Antique Land:An introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature. Lantham,MD:Rowman and Littlefield, 2009
March 23, 2015
"The Grasmere Journals" è indubbiamente un testo prezioso. I diari di Dorothy Wordsworth (sì, sorella del più celebre William) non hanno pretese artistiche o stilistiche, sono semplici annotazioni inerente una quotidianità a fruizione familiare - e certamente non erano destinati alla pubblicazione. L'ambientazione è appunto a Grasmere, nel Lake District, anni 1800 - 1803.
Ecco dove sta la preziosità di questo volumetto edito Sellerio, un mondo naturale descritto con sensibilità romantica e assolutamente non destinato ad essere letto da nessun altro fuori dal nucleo famigliare dei Wordsworth.
Ciò giustifica il tocco rapido e incisivo della scrittura di Dorothy, le frasi spezzate, la punteggiatura troppo frequente, il ritmo diseguale.
Dorothy non scrive per nessuno (neppure volle che leggesse l'amico Coleridge) - eppur noi possiamo.
Ecco dove sta la preziosità di questo volumetto edito Sellerio, un mondo naturale descritto con sensibilità romantica e assolutamente non destinato ad essere letto da nessun altro fuori dal nucleo famigliare dei Wordsworth.
Ciò giustifica il tocco rapido e incisivo della scrittura di Dorothy, le frasi spezzate, la punteggiatura troppo frequente, il ritmo diseguale.
Dorothy non scrive per nessuno (neppure volle che leggesse l'amico Coleridge) - eppur noi possiamo.
March 19, 2017
Ho letto questo libro poche pagine per volta, di mattina, come fosse un breviario. Non è un romanzo. Non è un'autobiografia. Si tratta di una serie di istantanee che Dorothy Wordsworth raccoglie per sé, o per parlarne con il più celebre fratello, il poeta William Wordsworth, che ne trasse infatti spunto per alcune sue liriche.
Ma quello che mi ha più impressionato è stato seguire questa vita di donna, in cui la preparazione del pane e delle focaccine si intreccia con la trascrizione di poesie (del fratello o di Coleridge, loro intimo amico), la lettura di Shakespeare con il rammendo dei calzini o la stiratura della biancheria, i lavori nell'orto con miglia e miglia di passeggiate, i diversi malesseri fisici con l'assistenza a mendicanti e vagabondi...
Ma quello che mi ha più impressionato è stato seguire questa vita di donna, in cui la preparazione del pane e delle focaccine si intreccia con la trascrizione di poesie (del fratello o di Coleridge, loro intimo amico), la lettura di Shakespeare con il rammendo dei calzini o la stiratura della biancheria, i lavori nell'orto con miglia e miglia di passeggiate, i diversi malesseri fisici con l'assistenza a mendicanti e vagabondi...
April 1, 2009
It’s fun to see how Dorothy’s observations served as inspiration for her brother’s poetry, and I wish I knew more of his work. This book is really a delight. You can choose to ignore the notes at the back of the book--and they do kind of disrupt the reading--but they add a great deal and give an even better peek at Dorothy's world.
This makes me want to book the next plane for the Lake District!
This makes me want to book the next plane for the Lake District!
April 3, 2014
One of my favorite books. A perfect companion for reading William Wordsworth.
November 17, 2018
A peaceful day-to-day telling of the life of the famous poet’s sister. It’s cozy and warm and paints a charming picture of the pretty simplicity of country life.
April 24, 2023
Dorothy keeps this journal intermittently for three years from summer 1800 to the autumn 1802, when her beloved brother William marries his childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. She is in her late twenties and early thirties. After their mother's death when Wordsworth was eight, neither Dorothy nor William was brought up in the bosom of a united family--and both seized at reconstituting, or making, this loving unit when the opportunity arose, with Dorothy attending to her brother in such an overwhelming, entirely self-sacrificial way that their relationship appeared threatened by his other (sexual) female loves, with Annette Vallon (for whom she intercedes with him, it appears) and Mary, who takes up a helpmeet role very like her own (and who becomes a sort of double in living with the brother-sister couple at Grasmere).
The journal is celebrated for the fineness of its nature descriptions. These are the finer for being interleaved among accounts of visits, duties, perpetual low-level illnesses and indispositions (hers, Wordsworth's and Coleridge's) and mundane tasks, like sticking peas, making sweet (gooseberry) and savoury (giblet) pies and starching linen. Often these are day-long activities. Either Dorothy does not get up or domesticity engulfs the part of her day when she is not walking with William or reading or copying out his nascent compositions. The nature descriptions are not objectively observational, but coloured by Dorothy's own feelings, suppressed or only to be guessed at in what she writes--for example, the waves beating on the nighttime shore at Calais when William is taking his farewell of Annette Vallon are 'interfused with greenish fiery light'. The journal contains what could be taken for initial notes for some of Wordsworth's best-known poems, including 'Daffodils'--which notes the width of the border of flowers, and is animated by the same exuberant delight, as William's poem--and the Westminster Bridge sonnet, which the couple cross in the early morning on their way to France to see (or bid farewell to) Annette, and which Dorothy, comparably to William, describes as having 'the purity of one of nature's own grand spectacles'. This suggests that the feeling in William's poems, especially of exaltation or of being forgiven, reprieved or blessed, is not solitary, but draws on emotional experience he shares with his sister.
The journal is celebrated for the fineness of its nature descriptions. These are the finer for being interleaved among accounts of visits, duties, perpetual low-level illnesses and indispositions (hers, Wordsworth's and Coleridge's) and mundane tasks, like sticking peas, making sweet (gooseberry) and savoury (giblet) pies and starching linen. Often these are day-long activities. Either Dorothy does not get up or domesticity engulfs the part of her day when she is not walking with William or reading or copying out his nascent compositions. The nature descriptions are not objectively observational, but coloured by Dorothy's own feelings, suppressed or only to be guessed at in what she writes--for example, the waves beating on the nighttime shore at Calais when William is taking his farewell of Annette Vallon are 'interfused with greenish fiery light'. The journal contains what could be taken for initial notes for some of Wordsworth's best-known poems, including 'Daffodils'--which notes the width of the border of flowers, and is animated by the same exuberant delight, as William's poem--and the Westminster Bridge sonnet, which the couple cross in the early morning on their way to France to see (or bid farewell to) Annette, and which Dorothy, comparably to William, describes as having 'the purity of one of nature's own grand spectacles'. This suggests that the feeling in William's poems, especially of exaltation or of being forgiven, reprieved or blessed, is not solitary, but draws on emotional experience he shares with his sister.
October 9, 2024
These are Ms Wordsworth, the sister of William Wordsworth's, private thoughts, as she chronicled them for posterity. It is a quiet memoir, about quiet memories of their time spent in England's Lake District. The style suited me perfectly as I have a penchant for books where nothing happens, in a setting as beautiful and sublime as the Lake District. The Turner illustrations etc were a wonderful added bonus
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June 16, 2023kind of adorable & strange and lovely. Sometimes i'm grumpy and wordsworth-sceptical, it all washes out a little too idyllic for me, maybe. I ended up being impressed that this still felt idyllic amid DW's descriptions of giblet pie and her syzygystic bowel movements with coleridge.
actually what most alarmed me is the supposedly rural lady is scared of cows
I shld be more sympathetic
actually what most alarmed me is the supposedly rural lady is scared of cows
I shld be more sympathetic
October 21, 2025
This was a very peaceful exploration of a moment lived in time by a set cast of historical figures of which I do not know much about. It is mesmerising and very tranquil read, specially the audiobook. I loved the repetitions that showed up and the everyday work that goes along any other kind of work be it artistic or otherwise.
November 22, 2017
An extremely dull account of headaches and walks. While this works as a biography of William Wordsworth's domestic life, I would not recommend reading this book unless you're really, truly infatuated with him and his work.
February 5, 2018
The diary of the poet Wordsworth's sister Dorothy giving an insight into life at Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the early years of the 19th Century. Lots of walks, lots of illnesses, lots of gardening and lots of baking. An interesting look into the daily life of one of literatures towering figures.
January 21, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. The vivid descriptions of Dorothy's life really took me back to those times, and it really brought to my attention the ways in which she inspired and aided her brother in writing poetry.
October 30, 2018
It seems that much of William's work is actually inspired by Dorothy.
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November 7, 2022mmmmmmmmm i love dorothy i think shes a genius
June 6, 2023
The audio version with Emma Fielding, Kenneth Cranham and Alex Jennings is superb
February 25, 2024
It would be nice if modern life was even halfway to this slow pace...
October 4, 2024
A nostalgic read
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