One thing that puzzles me: Coleridge's line 'On my left the two tarns and another precipice twice as lofty as the other.' Where on any ascent of Helvellyn would you have two tarns on the left, or the right for that matter? Satellite photo shows a tiny pool next to Red Tarn, which would be on the left going up Swirral Edge, but I must have been over the Edges dozens of times and never even noticed it.
He came in along the Dodds. Browncove Tarn (reservoir for the waterwheel for the mines) existed then I think. And Red Tarn. In moonlight also possible Red Tarn might look like two from some viewpoint. Best I can suggest!
I definitely needed this! My heart loves Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelley and Blake and yet, my brain rebels. Autistic "taking things literary" always made reading poetry tricky (or it may be because I am a nincompoop too) and I always need a lot of background research and "translating" the poetry before actually enjoying it. Perhaps, that's why when I think of English Romanticism, the first thing that comes to my mind are Turner's merciful seas and Constable's bucolic landscapes. Then, the German spirit shoulders its way in with - my favourite painter - Caspar David Friedrich with his dramatic depictions.
I read of the background of the ‘This Lime-tree Bower my Prison’ when was staying at Quantocks to follow Coleridge and Wordsworths steps. It made me chuckle what you said! Shared it with friend who is Scottish Physicist in her own exile in Germany - she will love it!
More great stuff.
One thing that puzzles me: Coleridge's line 'On my left the two tarns and another precipice twice as lofty as the other.' Where on any ascent of Helvellyn would you have two tarns on the left, or the right for that matter? Satellite photo shows a tiny pool next to Red Tarn, which would be on the left going up Swirral Edge, but I must have been over the Edges dozens of times and never even noticed it.
He came in along the Dodds. Browncove Tarn (reservoir for the waterwheel for the mines) existed then I think. And Red Tarn. In moonlight also possible Red Tarn might look like two from some viewpoint. Best I can suggest!
I definitely needed this! My heart loves Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelley and Blake and yet, my brain rebels. Autistic "taking things literary" always made reading poetry tricky (or it may be because I am a nincompoop too) and I always need a lot of background research and "translating" the poetry before actually enjoying it. Perhaps, that's why when I think of English Romanticism, the first thing that comes to my mind are Turner's merciful seas and Constable's bucolic landscapes. Then, the German spirit shoulders its way in with - my favourite painter - Caspar David Friedrich with his dramatic depictions.
I read of the background of the ‘This Lime-tree Bower my Prison’ when was staying at Quantocks to follow Coleridge and Wordsworths steps. It made me chuckle what you said! Shared it with friend who is Scottish Physicist in her own exile in Germany - she will love it!
Certainly music and painting are in there with fellwalking as aspects of English Romanticism. Which did originate in Germany with CDF and his mates.