Guide to the Lakes prose-poem about light, shapes, and textures, about movement and stillness ... It is a paean to a way of life, but also a lament for the inevitability of its passing ... What holds this diversity together is the voice of complete authority, compounded from experience, intense observation, thought, and love. Wordsworth was born in the Lake District and spent much of his life living there. Wordsworth and his friends Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge became known as Lake Poets not only because they lived in this area but also because its landscapes and people inspired their work. By 1810,
To William Wordsworth is a dominant theme within his poetry. The poem serves to contrast Coleridge and Wordsworth. In particular, the poem expresses Coleridge's feelings about his own mind and poetic career. He discuses how he hoped to become great when younger and then how he believes that his ability to write poetry has vanished. Coleridge would have struggled to write "To William Wordsworth" while Wordsworth did not have such experiences. The praise of Wordsworth also contradicted many of Coleridge's personal feelings at the time, which included jealousy. The poem's emphasis on Wordsworth's greatness is without any jealousy while attacking Coleridge's self in