Romantic Wanderers
Romantic Wanderers

The Peripatetic Mode in Wordsworth and Coleridge

Author(s): Przemysław Uściński
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Romantic poetry; peripatetic mode; wandering; imagination; nature; tourism
Summary/Abstract: For the English poets of the Romantic period wandering or roaming without fixed direction or purpose suggested not idleness but the possibility of rediscovering one’s sense of place and establishing a meaningful connection with nature. Peripatetic poetry tends to appreciate the need for movement, liberty, and spontaneity as well as the sense of openness and connectedness. By looking at two selected poems, one by Coleridge and one by Wordsworth, the article seeks to offer some notes on the Romantic attitudes to walking, especially in terms of their approach to nature, the role of imagination and experience, as well as in the context of their reaction (especially in case of Wordsworth) to the growth of mass-tourism in the period.

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