William Wordsworth’s Lake District

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, alongside Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads

The Lake District of north-west England is a consummately beautiful land of rugged hills, mountains and lakes, with pretty towns and villages set in their folds and on their shores. The poet William Wordsworth was born, lived, worked and died in this exquisite corner of England. Born in the 18th century, Wordsworth revolutionized English poetry and had a profound effect on later poets like Keats, Byron and Shelley. Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy, poet and diarist,  whom he was very close all of his life had a huge influence on him and his writings.

This documentary is a biography of the poet Wordsworth, set against the background of the hills and lakes of the Lake District. Whilst looking at the superb scenery we hear the poetry of this great man and some analysis of its significance. The viewer will learn of Wordworth’s life in the Lake District,  see William and Dorothy’s home ‘Dove Cottage‘ in Grasmere, hear of his marriage to Mary Hutchinson and about his children and where, later in his life, he moved to his much bigger house, Rydal Mount, which is situated between Ambleside and Grasmere.

Download 22 minutes ‘William Wordsworth’s Lake District’

A Lucy Poem:

 STRANGE fits of passion have I known:  and I will dare to tell,

But in the lover’s ear alone,  What once to me befell.

When she I loved look’d every day . Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way,  Beneath an evening moon.  by: William Wordsworth