The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, kept at Alfoxden in 1798 and at Grasmere from 1800 to 1803, record the daily life of Dorothy and William Wordsworth in the Lake District. First published in part in 1897, they are a classic of English nature writing.
The Grasmere Journal
Dorothy kept the Grasmere Journal from May 1800 to January 1803, in small notebooks. It records walks, gardening, letters, visitors such as Coleridge, beggars and travellers met on the road, and the changing light on the fells.
It ends in January 1803, a few months after William's marriage to Mary Hutchinson in October 1802.
Nature and poetry
Many entries became material for William's poems. The daffodils seen on 15 April 1802 near Gowbarrow Park on Ullswater, described in the journal, became his poem written two years later.
Other entries lie behind poems such as Resolution and Independence, inspired by an old leech-gatherer, and Beggars.
Publication
The journals were first printed in 1897 in a two-volume edition by William Knight, who left out what he thought trivial. Later editions, notably by Ernest de Sélincourt in 1941, restored the full text.
They are now read for their own sake, for the freshness and precision of their prose.
Anecdotes
Notebooks at Dove Cottage
The original notebooks of the Grasmere Journal are kept by the Wordsworth Trust at Dove Cottage in Grasmere.
A wedding morning
On the day of William's wedding in October 1802, Dorothy did not attend the church; her journal describes the emotion of the morning in a famous passage.
Frequently asked questions
When did Dorothy Wordsworth keep her journals?
At Alfoxden in 1798 and at Grasmere from 1800 to 1803.
Did the journals inspire William Wordsworth?
Yes; several of his poems, including the daffodils poem, draw on her descriptions.
Who first published them?
William Knight, in 1897.