Advice from William Wordsworth (new episode) – Human Voices Wake Us
Why should we continue to read the poetry of William Wordsworth? Tonight’s episode is devoted to Jonathan Bate’s biography, Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World, where he more than answers the question. For me, anyone who cares about poetry devoted to nature, introspection, and autobiography, can still learn the most from Wordsworth. And his concerns—the necessity of emotion and plain language in poetry, the belief that we have no greater story to tell than our own, and his love for the natural world—are as contemporary as anything on the news.
You can also listen to an earlier episode, where I read four of Wordsworth’s poems:
William Wordsworth: Immortality Ode, and 3 Other Poems – Human Voices Wake Us
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I grew up with Wordsworth, living in a village so isolated from everywhere. I published a series of children’s books of a little mouse poet who resolves human problems through poetry and yes, his name is Wordsworth. A stage musical was presented last year based on two of the books so Wordsworth the original poet is live and read .