Dorothy Wordsworth 1771-1855

Dorothy was the younger sister of William Wordsworth and along with her brother and Samuel Taylor Coleridge made up the “Wordsworth Circle”. What separated Dorothy from William and Coleridge was the fact that she never aspired to be primarily a published writer. “I should detest the idea of setting myself as an Author” she said (290). Dorothy had a tough childhood; her mother passed in 1778 and her father sent her four brothers off to school and sent Dorothy to live with a series of distant relatives. She missed he brothers terribly and particularly William. The two were finally reunited in 1787. Thanks to a legacy left to William, the two of them were able to get a home together in 1795.

Dorothy wrote during this time to please William. She made recording of her surroundings and events in her everyday life. William did publish a few of her works in his collections, specifying them as, “By my Sister”. Even though Dorothy had no desire to make a name for herself with her writings and wrote mainly to please William, there is no doubt that she had a talent. Her attention to detail was remarkable, which can be seen in her recordings from The Grasmere Journals and more precisely in A Field of Daffodils. She had a good poetic eye, and in many ways her writing style was similar to that of William’s. It was only after her death, that she has been recognized as a talented writer and poet. I can only imagine how good she could have been if she had shared the same passion for writing as did her brother, William.