![]() ![]() You can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds.” Repeating Wordsworth’s words, which are excerpted from Mills’ blog 4 and appear below (and on countless placards in Pinterest posts), may offer some solutions. In years past, I wrote about parallels between Wordsworth’s poems, depression, and seasonal affective disorder and specifically about the beloved “ Daffodils,” which opens with the words, “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” 2,3 This implies that his seasonal affective disorder was dissipating-or possibly that a hypomanic state was developing-or that he simply exhibited spontaneous poetic impulses, which are sometimes called the “madness of the muses.”Īlthough seasonal affective disorder is not at the forefront of our thoughts, given that the darkest days of autumn are behind us, it is worth revisiting other ways that Wordsworth offset unwanted negative thoughts that pop up in almost all of us from time to time, and not only in autumn. ![]() ![]() He remains one of our most revered poets, with his 24-line “Daffodils” being the most-read poem in the English language. Wordsworth’s impact extended far beyond the British Isles and well past the 19th century, for he birthed the romantic movement that spread across continents. Some of those ideas are related to his recovery from depression, and other ideas can be considered deterrents of future depression. But as we reread his poems and rejoice in his ideas today, he is metaphorically reborn again and again. 1 The year 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth’s birth. After which, young William was sent to live with relatives. His mother died when he was almost 8 years old, and his father passed away 5 years later. Wordsworth was an English-born poet, born in the countryside of Cockermouth. In 1843 he became Poet Laureate.When English journalist and blogger Katie Mills asked me about gardening and its benefits for mental health, she reignited my interest in William Wordsworth. From 1813 Wordsworth and his family lived at Rydal Mount in the next-door valley to Grasmere. Gradually he established himself as the great poet of his age, a turning-point coming with the Collected Poems of 1815. In 1802 Wordsworth married Dorothy's closest friend, Mary Hutchinson. Here Wordsworth wrote much of his best-loved poetry, and Dorothy her famous Journals. In the last days of the century Wordsworth and Dorothy found a settled home at Dove Cottage, Grasmere. In 1795 he was reunited with Dorothy, and met Coleridge, with whom he published Lyrical Ballads in 1898, and to whom he addressed The Prelude, his epic study of human consciousness. ![]() In France he fathered a child whom he did not meet till she was nine because of the War. His twenties were spent as a wanderer, in France, Wales, London, the Lakes, Dorset and Germany. The death of his father, agent to the immensely powerful landowner Sir James Lowther, broke in on this happiness when he was thirteen, but did not halt the education through nature that complemented his Hawkshead studies and became the theme of his poetry.Īt Cambridge, Wordsworth travelled (experiencing the French Revolution at first hand) and wrote poetry. Wordsworth was cared for in lodgings and led a life of exceptional freedom, roving over the fells that surround the village. Dorothy was sent away to be brought up by relatives, and a year later William was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, scene of the great childhood episodes of The Prelude. When she was six, and he was nearly eight, their mother died. He had three brothers and a sister, Dorothy, to whom throughout his life he was especially close. William Wordsworth was born in the Lake District in April 1770, and died there eighty years later on 23 April 1850. ![]()
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