William Wordsworth and Women Poets

Abstract

Despite his early interest in Helen Maria Williams and Charlotte Smith, Wordsworth is little remembered for any ongoing interest in British women poets. However, in 1829 he inquired about assisting with a possible second edition of Rev. Alexander Dyce's 1825 Specimens of British Poetesses. At about the same time, writing to Dionysius Lardner about a contributing an essay to Lardner's Cyclopaedia of Eminent Men, he suggested that he might prepare “an Account of the Deceased Poetesses of Great Britain – with an Estimate of their Works.” Both these plans, however, seem to have involved primarily poets of the eighteenth century. Still, throughout his later years Wordsworth took an active interest in several contemporary women poets, including Felicia Hemans, and attempted to promote the work of several lesser-known poets of his acquaintance. His interaction with these poets and their work reveals the extent to which his era's gendered attitudes colored both his advice and his cautious encouragement.