Swobodne wędrówki romantyków angielskich
The Wanderings of the English Romantic Poets

Wordsworth and Coleridge

Author(s): Przemysław Uściński
Subject(s): Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, 19th Century, Philology, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: William Wordsworth; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; romantic poetry; wandering; peripatesis; experience; nature; tourism; ecocriticism
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the importance of walking and wandering for the English Romantic poets, chiefly Wordsworth and Coleridge. It examines how wandering as an activity and a theme often helps them outline an attitude towards nature and human existence that affirms unpredictability and openness. By walking freely and wandering aimlessly the Romantic poets rediscover nature as a source of wonder, not a realm governed by mechanistic laws. In the process, they propose a different mode of inhabiting the earth – a different mode of dwelling, as Heidegger could say – one that underscores relatedness over an instrumental attitude of a subject towards an object. This induced some scholars to examine the complex eco-poetic dimension of Romantic poetry. Acknowledging the important ecological interest in the poetry discussed, the article also examines how the theme of wandering and the practice of walking tend to relate to a broader Romantic project of, say, re-enchanting the world. In particular, Romantic wonderings/wanderings seem to value the sense of joyfulness and spontaneity that issues from deep interconnectedness, in contrast with the notions that tie freedom to calculated choice and exploitation of nature and human life.

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