The Wordsworths!

Dorothy Wordsworth and her elder brother, William Wordsworth, made up a very talented family and were both influential writers of the Romantic era. Their mother and father both died at young ages leaving the children in the hands of extended family. This probably fostered the close relationship that Dorothy and William maintained throughout their entire lives. Dorothy and William had similar styles in that they were influenced by nature and its impact on the human soul. However, William was a famous author who published much of his work where as his sister Dorothy had no intentions of being published. Although many of Dorothy’s letters and diary entries were published after her death, she was most happy entertaining William and her family through writing short stories. Dorothy wrote about nature, domestic life, and simple observations of people. William on the other hand along with Taylor Coleridge, had intentions of breaking down the barrier between prose and poetry. He didn’t like the formality of poetry and wanted his poems to be understood by all people.
One thing that I find interesting is the fact that much of Dorothy and William’s work reflect one another. This could simply be because they both wrote during the same time and were influenced by the same scenery and nature around their home in the Lake District. However, part of me wonders if being a female poet during the early 1800’s was too challenging a life and therefore Dorothy found it more enjoyable to write for or help William publish his work. One particular entry found in Dorothy’s Grasmere Journal written in 1802 describes a field of daffodils William and her were walking through. Two years later William published a poem entitled I wandered lonely as a cloud, which is interestingly similar to Dorothy’s account of the daffodils. Did he just happen to write about the same scene a few years later? Did he read her journal years later and felt inspired after remembering the scene? Either way, both of their accounts are intriguing and create a wondrous image in the reader’s mind.
In her Grasmere Journal, Dorothy states “we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side”. I would assume that “we” pertains to Dorothy as well as her brother. This gives further evidence of the amount of time the two of them spent together and how they frequently saw similar scenes. I love the way Dorothy gives the daffodils life when stating “some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them (p. 296)”. It gives the reader an image of a bunch of children frolicking and resting in the grass.
Two years later William wrote a poem entitled I wandered lonely as a cloud. It is fairly easy to tell that William is describing the same scene in which Dorothy describes in her Journal, but even in the first stanza we see some obvious differences. Firstly, William describes the daffodils in a poem verses how Dorothy simply writes a narrative or diary entry. Secondly, William uses the pronoun “I” where as Dorothy uses “we”. Thirdly, Dorothy simply describes what was going on as her and William were on their walk and how she viewed it; however, he turns the basic images into fantastical descriptions which more easily create images in the reader's mind like how he wandered lonely “as a cloud (p. 282)”. Additionally, in the last stanza, William states

“For oft when on my couch I lie, In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye, Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils (p. 283)”.

This points to the idea that even when not physically looking at nature, William can reminisce of a past time when surrounded by beautiful scenery, which creates thoughts of happiness. This idea of nature making one happy even if it is just the recalling of a past scene is a recurrent theme throughout William Wordsworth’s work.