Bucket List Item #42: Hike the Lake District

Each day of our travels this past week brought new adventures.  I had the opportunity to see the home of the Bronte sisters and be in the presence of the very table they sat and wrote at.  At the Lake District, we explored the beautiful area and got to tour Dove Cottage where William Wordsworth lived for a time.  We also had the opportunity to go to the Wordsworth Trust and see things like first editions of his books and his travel journal. Then at Scotland we toured the grand home of Sir Walter Scott.  Out of visiting the homes of these amazing writers, Grasmere was my favorite. 

While in the Lake District, the home of William Wordsworth, I really felt like his poems became alive to me.  While at a little bakery, a line of his poetry framed on the wall said “What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out.”  Visiting Grasmere left me wanting to find out more about this grand poet.  As we sat in the Wordsworth Trust, we got to see a few items from his life.  We learned about his writing process and how he often dictated his poems to his sister or wife to write down, while they most likely were outside in nature.  One of the items at the Trust we got to see was Wordsworth’s travel journal.  I’m not sure why, but for some reason, I was really fascinated by this small journal.  I love the idea of having a travel journal, because while I am traveling, I often find myself wanting to write about the sights I see and the thoughts they provoke.  I’ll usually pull out my phone and write something down, but I think there is something special about having pen and paper to record your thoughts.  I asked myself questions about Wordsworth’s journal like “where did he take this journal?”, “what did he write in it?”, and “how did he put his observations together to create a poem?” 

Wordsworth was inspired by nature, and wrote lines like “I wandered lonely as a cloud/ That floats on high o'er vales and hills,/ When all at once I saw a crowd,/ A host, of golden daffodils;/ Beside the lake, beneath the trees,/ Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”  I love how Wordsworth paints this picture for us and makes it come alive through his descriptive words.  After visiting the Trust, we set off to do a hike.  Along the way, I paused to marvel at the simple things, like the brightly colored flowers and the stony bridges over small streams.  When we made it up a waterfall, again I was humbled by the beautiful fields of green and the sparkling water coming down that created a serenity that I bet only Wordsworth could describe.  Taking a step back and immersing myself in nature, not worrying about the cares of the world, helped me understand how Wordsworth came to write “To her fair works did Nature link/ The human soul that through me ran…”.  Nature has done this for me, connecting my soul through my body, and I hope to be able to carry a travel journal with me where I can record how nature inspires me.