In November, students on the ‘Politics and Terror in the Age of Revolutions’ module, which focusses on the Romantic period, took part in a residential trip to Grasmere in the Lake District.
English Literature students enjoying the Grasmere study trip - Image credit: Matthew Ward
They visited and looked around Dove Cottage, where Wordsworth lived with his sister Dorothy and wrote many of his most famous works and had a workshop at the Wordsworth Trust during which they were able to work with the original manuscripts of The Prelude. They also had the opportunity to take part in a walk on the fells surrounding Grasmere to experience first hand the landscapes which inspired the Romantic poets and the trip concluded with an evening of drinks and poetry in Dove cottage, including a reading of ‘Home at Grasmere’.
Students walking around the fells surrounding Grasmere - Image credit: Matthew Ward
"Reaching the top of the hill was my favourite part, and the silence and satisfaction in sitting at the top and drinking in the surroundings. It had a sense of serene camaraderie. It's not hard to see how Romantic writers could compose such beautiful poems when surrounded with all that beauty." Student quote
Students working with the original manuscripts of The Prelude - Image credit: Matthew Ward
"It was one of the most illuminating academic trips I have ever had, and I learnt so much about the process/impossibility of ever creating a 'true' copy of a text from so many differing manuscripts that I think you can only ever understand seeing them in the flesh, which I had never done before!" Student quote