Astronomy at Stowey: The Wordsworths and Coleridge

Abstract

As part of their daily activities in Stowey, the Word-worths and practiced astronomy. In Alfoxden journal, Dorothy records the appearance of The crescent moon, Jupiter, and (Woof 141) On late-night winter walks, often accompanied by William, Coleridge, Torn Poole and little Basil .Montagu. A storm on January 31, 1798, cleared to reveal first showing herself between the struggling clouds; afterwards Jupiter appeared (Woof 143); February 18, was sharp and cold upon which Dorothy observed the crescent moon, silvery line and thready bow, attended by Jupiter and Venus in their palest hues (Woof 146); and on the evening of March 6, she saw the shapes of the Central Stars (Woof 148). Her delight in celestial observation found its way into William's and Coleridge's poems. narrator of The Thorn carries his telescope up the mountain, while Coleridge's Mariner uses his spy-glass to make astronomical sightings that he had recently read about in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Reading the latest astronomical discoveries in learned journals and periodicals, together with closely watching-the heavens, ensured that some of the shared experience celebrated in Lyrical Ballads and Alfoxdert journal had its roots in collaborative star-gazing. On March 23, 1798, Dorothy records that came for dinner: Coleridge dined with us. brought his ballad finished. We walked with him to the miner's house. A beautiful evening, starry, the horned (Woof 150). Dorothy's language is strikingly imitative of The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere at precisely the point that it. owes most to professional astronomy. In that poem, depicts singular lunar phenomenon that was being debated in the 1790s: While clombe above the Eastern bar I horned Moon, with one bright Star I the tips (Butler and Green, 11. 201-03). _John Livingston Lowes has suggested that first got the idea of star atween or the tip of the moon from volume five of Henry Jones' two volume abridgement of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1700-1720), first published in 1721 (Cowes 41). sentence in question is in an article entitled An Extract of letters from Dr. C Mather, from New England, to Mr. Waller of the Royal Society, dated 1712: He says, there is Tradition among them, that in November 1668, Star appear'd below the Body of the Moon within the Horns of it (Jones V. ii. 161). Bristol Library Society, of which was member between 1795-98, had an edition of Jones' abridged volumes, which may well have consulted in the reading rooms (Bristol 65). Another likely source is the Philosophical Transactions for 1787 (vol. 77) that borrowed from the Bristol Library in 1795 (Wu 182-83). This contained William Herschel's account of viewing three volcanoes in the moon, one of which chews an actual eruption of fire, or luminous matter (Herschel 230), which would have stuck in Coleridge's mind. On the evening of March 23, 1798, the moon was beautifully horned, waxing crescent with 31% of its visible disk illuminated.' It was very starry night, and everyone will have been looking for star Almost the tips of the moon to attest to the Mariner's description, or at least for a star or two beside (258) it. This hunt might have gone on, appropriately, with the sea murmuring in the background, since Dorothy noted January 23. 1798, that sound of the Sea was distinctly heard on the tops of the hills at all seasons excluding summer (Woof 141). Even if, did not divulge the specific scientific material behind the lines (which is hard to believe considering they had perfectly. homed noon from of them) sharing their poems on walks over the Quantocks places poetry in dialogue with Herschelian astronomy. Herschel may modify or corroborate their sightings. …