27/05/2026
Radical Wordsworth by Jonathan Bate completely opened my eyes to the radical, even revolutionary, impact of Wordsworth output. Of course, this video simplifies things a great deal. He was already working with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, here in Somerset, before returning to live at Dove Cottage in Grasmere with his sister, Dorothy. Together, they produce Lyrical Ballads, setting the scene for them to take on the poetic norms of the day….this was poetry for the people. Maybe it hadn’t sounded like that to my 21st century ear but now I understood…something clicked
I went on such a journey with this book, imaging the pyrotechnics of imaginative fervor of the Lakes Poets as they bounded across fellsides. If you enjoy nature writing, philosophy, literary history, biography, poetry and English landscapes…then this one could be for you. I really really enjoyed it and it’s a book with a long tail. It’s whispering to me now, arguably making more radical in my outlook as I cast a gaze across our current society