Dorothy Wordsworth
(1771-1855)
For a person who did not even think of herself as a writer, Dorothy has done pretty well in the regular poet reader’s eye. As a sister to two brothers Dorothy may be considered the best writer in the family. The reason I say this is because William, favorite brother , prided himself in being a poet. He was well recognized for it and worked hard at it. Dorothy on the other hand did not like the idea of becoming a poet but yet wrote daily entries in a diary. Entries that showed the roles of a women in society. She also had a strong sense for nature and gave strong imagery to let readers such as I feel that I am out and about in the beautiful place of nature at which she describes. One of the main ideas I got from her was how she wanted to be young once again. Maybe it was because it was a time where she had her parents or maybe it was because she was not stricken to women type of duties. I feel that this is why she gave such strong descriptions of nature because she wrote as if she was a child and as she grew she never left that type of thinking. In 1835, when Dorothy was about 65 years old she wrote “When Shall I Tread Your Garden Path.” In this you get a strong since of what I mean.

When shall I tread your garden path?
Or climb your sheltering hill?
When shall I wander, free as air,
And track the foaming rill?
A prisoner on my pillowed couch
Five years in feebleness I’ve lain,
Oh! Shall I e’er with vigorous step
Travel the hills again?
Pg 294

Now, I found this interesting because even at here age she is still writing about wandering around in wilderness. It is as if she feels stuck at where she is at “when shall I wander, free as air,” shows me that and it sounds almost as if she is enslaved. I may be going a little to far on this but this is what I got from this.