Tag Archives: William Wordsworth

Understanding

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Well, I hope they understand one another – nobody else would.” — Wordsworth, 1846 – musing on the marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning

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“he could not bear young girls”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“William Hazlitt owned that he could not bear young girls; they drove him mad. So I took him home to my old nurse, where he recovered perfect tranquility.” — Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth, June 26, 1806

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John Milton Is Turning 400 Years Old

Posted on September 26, 2008 by sheila

Many venues in New York (and, I assume, elsewhere) are getting ready to celebrate and pay tribute. I will definitely need to check out the exhibit at the Morgan Library (opening in October) – and I just love this entire … Continue reading →

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Youth

Posted on May 30, 2007 by sheila

In his youth Wordsworth sympathized with the French Revolution, went to France, wrote good poetry, and had a natural daughter. At this period, he was called a ‘bad’ man. Then he became ‘good’, abandoned his daughter, adopted correct principles, and … Continue reading →

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Isaac Newton, by James Gleick

Posted on November 22, 2006 by sheila

I finished my second book on the “From the Stacks” challenge list. Isaac Newton – by James Gleick. One of the reader reviews on that Amazon page says, “I found myself reading this book as I walked to the busstop … Continue reading →

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Today in History: April 28, 1789

Posted on April 28, 2005 by sheila

On April 28th, 1789, 12 crew members of the HMS Bounty burst into Captain Bligh’s cabin, dragged him out onto the deck of the ship, put him in a lifeboat, and set him adrift. It was the now-famous Mutiny on … Continue reading →

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Commonplace

Posted on March 5, 2005 by sheila

It was Wordsworth’s clear line I wanted, nothing to do with mountains, only the quiet sunshine and silence, but I hated being alone. The lonely cannot love solitude. I wanted a garden outside tall windows, winter sun in leafless branches, … Continue reading →

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Commonplace

Posted on March 5, 2005 by sheila

The strength of the genie comes of his being confined in a bottle. — Wordsworth.

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No Collateral Interruption

Posted on March 5, 2005 by sheila

“Coleridge has told me that he himself liked to compose in walking over uneven ground, or breaking through the straggling branches of a copse-wood; whereas Wordsworth always wrote (if he could) walking up and down a straight gravel-walk, or in … Continue reading →

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LM Montgomery on Wordsworth

Posted on May 20, 2004 by sheila

… as she re-read some of his stuff during World War I: “The classic calm and repose and beauty of his lines seemed to belong to another planet and to have as little to do with this world-welter as an … Continue reading →

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