The Lake Poets is a group called for a collection of English poets who lived in the Lake District of North West England during the early 1800s. As a group, they did not all share the same ideas or writing styles. The Edinburgh Review gave them a name, but it also criticized them harshly. They are seen as part of the English Romantic movement.
The three main poets in this group were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. These poets worked with several other writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb, Charles Lloyd, Hartley Coleridge, John Wilson, and Thomas De Quincey.
Origins and accuracy of the name
The term "Lake Poet School" (also called "Bards of the Lake" or the "Lake School") was originally used as a negative label. One person, Francis Jeffrey, described it as "the School of whining and overly anxious poets that haunt the Lakes," as reported by Coleridge. However, this name was incorrect because the group was not specifically from the Lake District, nor did its members share a unified style of poetry. The main members of the group were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. Dorothy Wordsworth, William's sister, was also part of the group. She did not publish her own work during her lifetime, but her journals, letters, and poems were published after her death. Her ideas greatly influenced her brother's writing.
Readers who enjoyed the poetry of the Lake Poets were often inspired to visit the Lake District. This led to changes in the area that William Wordsworth, in particular, felt made the region less special. Despite this, he later wrote one of the best guides to the area. Additionally, many early and middle-generation Romantic poets had complicated feelings about the Lake District, except for Wordsworth. Most of these poets either struggled with being associated with the Lake Poets or defined their own styles in contrast to what the Lake District seemed to represent in poetry.
The Lake poets
William Wordsworth moved to Dove Cottage in Grasmere with his sister Dorothy after living elsewhere for many years. He was born and raised near the Lake District, in Cockermouth and Penrith, and returned to the area in December 1799. He lived a quiet life focused on poetry within the mountains of his childhood. Although he did not discover the Lake District or make it famous, he became an important figure in the region. His view of nature influenced how people saw the landscape for many years. His poetry explored how people and nature are connected. Early in his life, he was influenced by the idea of nature as something to be admired for its beauty, but later he believed this was only one way to see nature. His vision of nature did not change it to fit art.
Wordsworth’s early political ideas led him to write about everyday people, using simple language. He focused on common people, like those in the Dales, rather than on royalty or gods. His work also included personal reflections on nature and imagination. He once wrote that his poem The Prelude was about the growth of his own mind.
Despite being private, Wordsworth cared about family and community. He was troubled by changes that harmed people, especially the poor, such as the enclosure movement. He disliked things like straight lines of trees, railways, and large houses built by industrialists. In 1810, he wrote Guide to the Lakes, which included advice on how to protect the area’s beauty. Some believe this book marked a shift from his poetic vision to focusing on facts. The guide became popular and influenced building and gardening in the Lake District for many years.
Other writers had different views of the region. Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved to the Lakes in 1800 and lived in Greta Hall. While he was called a "Lake Poet," his view of the landscape was different from Wordsworth’s. He saw the area’s "Gothic elements" and focused on its ability to create a sense of fear rather than peace. Coleridge struggled with personal problems and health, which worsened in the Cumbrian climate. He left the area in 1804.
Robert Southey lived at Greta Hall from 1803 to 1843 and was often called the central "Lake Poet." However, he wrote more prose than poetry and did not share Wordsworth’s vision of the Lakes. Southey started as a supporter of republicanism but later became a Tory, praising national pride and using the Lakes as a symbol of the nation’s relationship with God.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s drawing, Grasmere Lake, A Sketch by a Cockney, published in 1834, was a humorous take on the Lake Poets, whom she admired but saw as outdated. She believed the Romantic era had ended.
In Mare, a satire by John Paterson, the Lake Poets are described as a group of birds, showing their role in the publishing world.
Associated writers
The second generation of Romantic poets were attracted to the Lake District because they admired the idea of living in quiet, peaceful places and believed the older poets supported ideas about freedom and equality. However, when they arrived, they found the area had changed. In 1811, Shelley stayed in Keswick for three months after being inspired by the early writings of Robert Southey, who had once supported freedom and equality. Shelley was surprised to learn Southey’s views had changed and that the natural beauty of the Lakes was being harmed by the growth of factories and industry.
In 1818, Keats visited the area and had a similar experience. He expected to find his hero, William Wordsworth, living a simple life, but instead found Wordsworth’s home filled with fashionable visitors and Wordsworth himself traveling to support a local political leader. Keats then traveled to Scotland, where he found the inspiration he needed, especially influenced by the poet Robert Burns.
Byron never visited the Lake District, but he criticized the older Lake Poets for their loneliness and narrow-mindedness, as well as their loss of interest in political reform.
John Wilson, a healthy and active man, lived near Windermere from 1808 to 1815 and knew the older Lake Poets well. His poetry, Isle of Palms, shows his love for the natural beauty of the Lakes and his enjoyment of outdoor activities like walking and climbing. Unlike Wordsworth, Wilson focused on themes of friendship and energy rather than quiet solitude.
Wilson was friends with Harriet Martineau and Thomas De Quincey. Martineau moved to a house she built near Ambleside in 1845. Unlike Wordsworth, she believed the Lakes should be more connected to the outside world. She supported improvements like better sanitation and new railway lines. Her book, Complete Guide to the Lakes (1855), provided clear, factual information about the area and the lives of its people.
De Quincey moved into Dove Cottage in 1809 after meeting Wordsworth at Allan Bank and Rydal Mount. He admired Wordsworth deeply at first, but after marrying a local woman and being rejected by the Wordsworths, his admiration turned to disappointment. Instead, he became closer to the people of the surrounding valleys. He focused on observing the real world of the Lakes to fuel his imagination, unlike the earlier practice of using imagination to change or distort the real world.
Other writers
The beauty of the Lake District has inspired many writers over the years, including those who lived at the same time as the core Lake Poets. These writers include Bryan Procter, Felicia Hemans, and Walter Scott, as well as John Close, a working-class poet who lived a little later and focused on the growing number of tourists visiting the area. Other poets who wrote about the region include James Payn, Margaret Cropper, and Norman Nicholson.
In 1871, at the age of 48, John Ruskin chose to live in Brantwood, a house near Coniston Water, after visiting the Lake District many times. He was tired both physically and mentally and wanted a peaceful place to rest. His feelings of weariness and sadness made him a figure of interest to visitors of the Lake District, who also sought comfort and rest in the area, rather than the excitement that earlier travelers had enjoyed. Though Ruskin wrote little about the region, he became known as a new "Sage of the Lakes," a respected figure associated with the area. Norman Nicholson described Ruskin as a "Picturesque Figure," noting that Ruskin combined three important aspects: art, science, and morality. Nicholson believed that Ruskin’s scientific study of the rocks and water in the Lake District aimed not only to understand the landscape but also to teach others how to respond to it in a practical and moral way.