Wordsworthians on Wordsworth

I recently devoted a fair amount of time to reading a fellow students’ blog: Wordsworthians. Focused on the life, works, and philosophy of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, Wordsworthians Blog is chocked full of Wordsworth history and writing. The actual guy was a bit of a poet-obsessive; Wordsworth’s The Prelude (an autobiographical poem that took over fifty years of writing and revision) went on to rival other epics like Paradise Lost. If that doesn’t get you interested in the works of Mr. Wordsworth, the man’s philosophy and perspective in the Romantic era is certainly worth checking out.

            I enjoyed the blog’s overall look and theme. While creating a blog dedicated to a single author might seem easier, than, say, forming a blog from one poem, covering William Wordsworth’s works and importance is a bit of a chore. Wordsworthians Blog did a good job in their research and detail. The blog’s overall look is pretty simple. There is a well-designed heading and easy-to-read posts unencumbered by graphics. As a matter of fact the only thing lacking on the blog is graphics; there are few videos, pictures, and links.

            One of the most interesting things about the blog, I found, was Wordsworth’s religion. Although I had been in a class last year that widely covered romanticism and its byproduct transcendentalism and all associated authors, it was most interesting to learn again how and why Wordsworth found nature to be his religion. According to Wordsworth, there is “something special about nature”, that “To commune with the fields and waters, the woodlands and the hills, is to commune, according to our modern and northern ideas, with the visible manifestations of the 'Wisdom and Spirit of the Universe ".  His beliefs were probably shared among many romantic poets, but what struck me is that Wordsworth actually gained a large following in leading this idea. His followers were called “Wordsworthians”; it would seem then that this blog is very aptly named.

            This blog’s importance lies in its reflections on Wordsworth’s poetry, his philosophy, and his history. It delves into some of the characteristics of what romanticism was at the time, and is very thorough in its research. I would recommend this blog to anyone who is interested in Romanticism and that era; William Wordsworth I believe was a core Romantic Poet.