Wordsworth and the geologists : a correlation of interests

Abstract

This study is about Wordsworth's understanding of geology, his attitude to the rapidly growing science, his knowledge of four major geologists and his friendship with two of them. It is also about the four geologists and their interest in issues which also occupied Wordsworth's attention, such as the earth's duration and decay, the benefits and limitations of scientific enquiry, the idea of `universality' in nature, and the strength of the awakened human mind. Where there is evidence of the influence of Wordsworth's poetry, chiefly on the two younger geologists, this is examined. The study concentrates on the writing of Wordsworth in his middle and later years: A Topographical Description of the District of the Lakes, The Excursion, The River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets, and the Itinerary Poems. Each of these texts is examined from the point of view of what is revealed about the poet's understanding of geology and about his occupation with larger issues of belief and the relationship of the human to the material world. An emphasis is placed on reading the poems in the context of the sequences in which Wordsworth intended them to appear. Each of the four geologists, James Hutton, George Bellas Greenough, Adam Sedgwick, and William Whewell, is considered in turn, but each study of a geologist is intercalcated with a study of texts by Wordsworth in order to develop inter-related themes. By using original sources or original texts of published material, the geologists are studied as natural philosophers, concerned with issues of philosophy and scientific method. The point is made that they were men with a wide range of intellectual interests and this created a strong bond of sympathy with Wordsworth and, for some, with Coleridge. The concluding chapter examines the notion of `influence' and illustrates the reciprocity of influence between poet and geologist, the conventional ideas of a `spirit of the times', and the unity between science and the humanities.

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