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Alexander von Humboldt
An English poet who lived his whole life in the Lake District, Wordsworth transformed the British public’s attitude toward the countryside by arguing that people from the city needed to spend time in nature in order to rediscover the virtues of nature and heal their psychic wounds. He often wrote about phenomena he encountered on his daily walks through his region’s mountains and lakes, and famously subtitled his poems with the precise place where they were conceived in order to preserve the moments of natural beauty he experienced as “spots of time.” While other writers and critics initially lampooned his poetry, by the end of his life Wordsworth was one of Britain’s most esteemed writers; because of his influence, tourists from cities suddenly flooded the Lake District. De Botton contemplates Wordsworth during his own trip to the Lake District in the fifth essay, “On the Country and the City.”
William Wordsworth Quotes in The Art of Travel
The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by William Wordsworth or refer to William Wordsworth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
What though the radiance which was so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
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One of Wordsworth’s poetic ambitions was to induce us to see the many animals living alongside us that we typically ignore, registering them only out of the corner of our eyes and feeling no appreciation for what they are up to and want: shadowy, generic presences such as the bird up on the steeple and the rustling creature in the bush. He invited his readers to abandon their usual perspectives and to consider for a time how the world might look through other eyes, to shuttle between the human and the natural perspective. Why might this be interesting, or even inspiring? Perhaps because unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
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Chapter 8
Quotes
A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in one’s life. There is an urge to say, “I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.”
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William Wordsworth Quotes in The Art of Travel
The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by William Wordsworth or refer to William Wordsworth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
What though the radiance which was so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
One of Wordsworth’s poetic ambitions was to induce us to see the many animals living alongside us that we typically ignore, registering them only out of the corner of our eyes and feeling no appreciation for what they are up to and want: shadowy, generic presences such as the bird up on the steeple and the rustling creature in the bush. He invited his readers to abandon their usual perspectives and to consider for a time how the world might look through other eyes, to shuttle between the human and the natural perspective. Why might this be interesting, or even inspiring? Perhaps because unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in one’s life. There is an urge to say, “I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
