The Wordsworth Lecture: The Poetry That Changed The World

William and Dorothy Wordsworth at Rydal.

Join us for a landmark Wordsworth Lecture at the British Library as the Wordsworth Trust celebrates its acquisition of Rydal Mount, final home of William Wordsworth, 'the poet who changed the world'. This special event will illuminate the lives, writings, and enduring legacy of William and Dorothy Wordsworth at Rydal. Featuring Jonathan Bate, Chair of the Wordsworth Trust, in conversation with Professor Tim Fulford, author of Experimentalism in Wordsworth’s Later Poetry, and Dr Jessica Fay, editor of The Poetry of Dorothy Wordsworth.

His other books include Radical Wordsworth: The Poet who Changed the World, The Genius of Shakespeare, and biographies of John Clare and Ted Hughes. Jonathan is Regents Professor of Literature and Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities in Global Futures, the School of Sustainability and the College of Liberal Arts at Arizona State University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, and Chair of the Hawthornden Foundation.

She is the editor to two major new volumes on Dorothy Wordsworth. The Poetry of Dorothy Wordsworth is the first scholarly edition designed to introduce long-neglected verse to students, critics, and general readers; Dorothy Wordsworth in Context is the most substantial critical and contextual study to date of a writer of exceptional influence and perceptive power. Jessica’s other books include Wordsworth’s Monastic Inheritance and The Collected Letters of Sir George and Lady Beaumont to the Wordsworth Family.

Tim Fulford has been excited – and troubled – by Wordsworth’s poetry ever since, aged 18 and sick for home, he read the Prelude in an ice-bound Oslo. He has published three books about him – opening his neglected later poetry to revaluation. He’s also a specialist in the writings of Coleridge and Southey, and has produced many editions designed to restore forgotten Romantic works to notice. Currently, he’s editing the Collected Letters of Thomas Beddoes (the experimental scientist who was also Wordsworth’s doctor) and the Collected Letters of John Clare.