Created by Amy Gates on Thu, 08/27/2020 - 20:25
Description:
By the time the quintessential Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) died, he was England's Poet Laureate, and he was revered by people of Victorian England. This wood engraving of Wordsworth's grave illustrated an 1860 article titled "A Group of Graves" in Once a Week magazine (vol. 3, p. 273). This image is in the Public Domain.
In the article, author Mackenzie Wolcott describes the situation of the graveyard by the river Rotha and the simple graves of Wordsworth and members of his family. The article also describes the grave of Hartley Coleridge, eldest son of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, located behind Wordsworth's grave. Hartley Coleridge died earlier in the same year as Wordsworth, who followed the younger man's bier. The existence of this illustrated article, appearing ten years after the poet's death, is an indicator of the esteem still felt for the poet. The final paragraph of the article offers this praise:
Here, rather than in the long-drawn aisles of Westminster, the memorial of the poet appears appropriate; but, indeed, he needs no monument. As long as the mountains stand and the lakes brighten the dales which once he celebrated, and with which now his name is imperishably associated, he needs no other monument than his own immortal verse, which he has bequeathed to all who can appreciate and love what is pure and good, and beautiful and holy—a κτῆμα ἐς τὸ ἀεί. (274)
The text of the article can be found here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Once_a_Week_(magazine)/Series_1/Volume_3/A_group_of_graves.
Bibliography
Hine, Henry George. "Wordsworth's Grave." 1860. Once a Week, vol. 3, p. 273. Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Levana Taylor, 7 Feb. 2019, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wordsworths_Grave_(Hine).png.
Walcott, Mackenzie. "A Group of Graves." Once a Week, vol. 3, 1860, pp. 272-74. Wikisource, 9 September 2019, en.wikisource.org/wiki/Once_a_Week_(magazine)/Series_1/Volume_3/A_group_of_graves.
Copyright:
Associated Place(s)
Timeline of Events Associated with Wordsworth's Grave (Hine)
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Artist:
- Henry George Hine