Dove Cottage and Wordsworth

All things that love the sun are out of doors; the sky rejoices in the morning's birth; the grass is bright with raindrops--on the moors, the hare is running races in her mirth; and with her feet she from the plashy earth raises a mist; that, glittering in the sun, runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run. (Wordsworth)

Wordsworth truly had the ability to stir emotion and inspire others with his words. Every time I read that passage, I feel uplifted.

Wordsworth was a major English poet who helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. He became England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

The death of his parents and his separation from his siblings shaped him and influenced his early work, which is reflected in themes of loss, death, separation and abandonment.

He became close friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, moved to Somerset, which was in close proximity to Coleridge. The three collaborated on and produced Lyrical Ballads.

After time spent in Germany, Wordsworth and Dorothy moved back to England to Dove Cottage in the Lake District. Fellow poet, Robert Southey, lived nearby and Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey became known as the Lake Poets.

Wordsworth's brilliance lives on in writings that are timeless.

Note: Dove Cottage (shown above) was the setting where Wordsworth composed some of his best work. Some seventy thousand visitors wander through the cottage and grounds each year.