Dorothy Wordsworth’s Dear Diaries

Dorothy Wordsworth, or “Dot” as I like to call her due to her endearing relationship with her brother William Wordsworth, wrote poetry, but is best knows for her Grasmere Journals. Pamela Woof writes in regard to Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals that, “she was no fiction writer plotting other worlds, but her own world is brought before us, satisfyingly historical and satisfyingly imaginative” (157). Coleridge is quoted in Woof as describing Dot as “’watchful in minutest observations of nature’” (159). Woof further notes that “domestic events, everyday images, steady the transcendent in Dorothy’s writing, and the momentary escapes give buoyancy to the domestic” (163). The excerpts from Dot’s Grasmere Journals and her poetry lend themselves to the descriptions of both Woof and Coleridge’s observations that Dot possessed an ability to observe details in nature and everyday life that many people overlook.

Dot is incredibly descriptive in her writings of both manure and the goings on around her. In her journal entry from September 3, 1800, she beings by telling how her day started, then saying, “I ironed till half past three, now very hot. I then went to a funeral…” (433). She describes the number of people in attendance at the funeral and that the deceased was “buried by the parish; the coffin was neatly lettered and painted black and covered with decent cloth” (433). In that same entry, she describes the “green fields, neighbors of the churchyard, were green as possible, and with the brightness of the sunshine, looked quite gay” (433). She finished the entry with, I did not finish ironing till 7 o’clock.[…] William and John came home at 10 o’clock” (433). This entry alone is an excellent example of Dot’s attention to detail, attention to the natural world and her ability to document the world around her and her domesticity. She draws the reader into her moment in time.

Probably one of Dot’s most famous journal entries, and the inspiration for her brother William’s poem, “Daffodils,” is her entry from April 15, 1802. In this entry, she literally “paints” a portrait of the “woods beyond Gowbarrow Park,” when she describes the daffodils as:

[A] long belt of them along the shore…[…] They grew among the mossy stones…some rested their heads upon these stones on a pillow for weariness, and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake. They looked so gay—ever-glancing, ever changing. (434)

Dot records daily life, sometimes writing of the weather, what she and her brother did during the day, and the people they interacted with. When Dot writes of her interaction with nature, her writing seems to become more alive than at any other time. In her April 29, 1802, journal entry, she describes her and William laying in a trench, “listening to the waterfalls and birds…a sound of waters in the air, the voice of the air” (434-435). Later that day, she lay in the grass and “observed the glittering sliver line on the riders of the backs of sheep, owing to their situation respecting the sun…as if belonging to a more spending world” (435).

Her journals also provide historical information. Her October 4, 1802, entry records William’s marriage to Mary Hutchinson. Although Dot was probably not aware of the historical importance that this entry would one day provide, she again left us a moment in her time. The people that Dot encountered are also described. October 3, 1800, she describes meeting “an old man almost double” who “had a wife, ‘a good woman’” and whose “trade was to gather leeches, but now leeches are scarce, and he had not strength for it” (433). Not only does her entry describe “ordinary” people she met, but it also gives us, readers of the 21^st Century, a glimpse into the life and practices of 19^th Century England.

Yet, Dot’s poetry focuses more on nature, rather than domesticity or everyday life. In “Thoughts on my Sickbed,” and “When shall I tread your garden path,” Dot’s age, declining health, and memories of interacting with the natural world are apparent. In “Sickbed,” she writes, “I thought of nature’s loveliest scenes,/and with memory I was there” (51-52), while in “Garden Path,” she describes herself as “A prisoner on my pillowed couch,/Five years in feebleness I’ve lain—” (5-6).

The passion that Dot felt for nature, her love for it, and not only nature’s own life, but the life it gave her are evident in all aspects of her writing. Yet, it is her journals that not only record nature in its most minute of details but also serve as history records of her life, as well as the lives of everyone and everything around her, even documenting the time spent ironing in a day, that her passion for nature and detail is most apparent.

Works Cited

Woof, Pamela. “Dorothy Wordsworth, ‘Journal’.” A Companion to Romanticism. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. 157-168

-----. “From ‘The Grasmere Journals, Wednesday 3 September 1800’.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 433.

-----. “From ‘The Grasmere Journals, Friday 3 October 1800 (exract)’.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 433.

-----. “From ‘The Grasmere Journals, Thursday 15 April 1802’.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 434.

-----. “From ‘The Grasmere Journals, Thursday 29 April 1802’.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 434-435.

-----. “From ‘The Grasmere Journals, Thursday 4 October 1802’.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 435.

-----. “Thoughts on my Sickbed.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 439-440.

-----. “When shall I tread your garden path.” Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-Rom. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 440.