Wordsworth And The Romanticizing Of The English Lake District

As a representative of the "Lake Poets", William Wordsworth made local life and local writing as his individual label. He lived in the Lake District for most of his life, and called himself a "northern villager". His most influential poems were due to the Lake District, and described local landscapes and rural lives which are real topographically. He poured emotion and imagination into reality, and made many specific locations not only beautiful scenery, but also profound visual images. Above all, he explored the local spirits and characteristics of the Lake District, and represented them accurately in his poetry.The Lake District is a traditional pastoral area in northwest England, which contains several ancient counties:Cumberland, Westmorland and north Lancashire. These counties share geographical and cultural features in terms of topography and history, but did not unite into a whole geographical concept initially. In the 18th century, as the rising of the picturesque aesthetic and British nationalism, these areas became central concerns of the cultural elite, and were eventually constructed to be a whole image "the Lake District". In the view of cultural geography and landscape science, the Lake District is a typical complex of space, place and landscape. It is a specific place practiced by local people, a landscape, and space in which various power discourses conflict.Thus, Wordsworth’s writing of this complex also has three dimensions.Firstly, it is faithful representation of the landscape. In Wordsworth’s poems, there are so many realistic descriptions of natural landscape and country lives, which assemble together to be a literal picture of the Lake District. This chapter examines these details on the basis of combing a great deal of texts, and sketches a broad outline of the landscape of the Lake District written by Wordsworth, focusing on the three high-frequency activity area of Wordsworth geographically, that is Cockermouth, Hawkshead, Grasmere and Rydal; and selecting the four major elements of landscape "water, stone, wood and building", which based on the general terrain features of the Lake District.Secondly, it is emotional projection and imaginary sublimation of the place, which mainly reflects in three aspects:(1) aesthetic processing of nature. Affected by the Picturesque aesthetic, Wordsworth used the picturesque aesthetic principles and a variety of painting skills when observing, appreciating, and representing nature. The Lake District he wrote is a mixture of pastoral and wilderness, presenting picturesque between beauty and sublime; (2) spiritual elevation of characters. As having a strong sense of community and deep love to his neighbors, Wordsworth endowed them with a series of virtues such as simplicity, diligence, humility, kindness, etc.; (3) poetic extraction of rural lives. On the concept of time, Wordsworth used natural time such as natural season, farming season, and festival, which contrasts to mechanical time in the city; on rural work, Wordsworth admitted its hard, but still endowed it with poetic qualities; on human relationship, Wordsworth emphasized that country is a stable community on the basis of geographical and consanguineous links.Finally, it is valorization of space. As one of the cultural elite, Wordsworth joined the wave of valorization of the Lake District in the 18th and 19th centuries. Through his representation and imagination, the Lake District presents some characteristics of traditional British countries, which contrasts to the cities in the Industrial Revolution and other countries after the Agricultural Revolution, and becomes the representation of English country and rural spirits. He emphasized local features, local pride and individual experiences, which presents some romantic spirits, such as particularity, variety, diversity, and individuality, etc. So, the Lake District becomes a classical image of Romanticism. Furthermore, his extolling of local landscape contains much national emotions, and under the background of the construction of national identity in the 19th century, his idealization of the Lake District made it a window of Britain and symbol of the nation.Through writing of these three dimensions, Wordsworth completed the romanticizing process of the Lakes District, and branded it with his own icon. This place has been depicted, imagined and valorized by many people, but Wordsworth changes the collective narration into a "personal myth". Due to him, the Lake District has been positioned as a poetic space and its landform partly changed. And eventually, it is called "Wordsworthire". His influence is so great that, in turn, it becomes a new kind of collective discourse, influencing later observing and writing of the Lake District. The relationship between Wordsworth and the Lake District has become a motif, and the study of which has great reference significance for other similar studies on poet and place, literature and geography.