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 Coleridge. In response, Coleridge wrote "To William Wordsworth", in January 1807, to capture his positive feelings about his friend's poem. "The Prelude" was in a five book form by 1804 when Coleridge first read the work, but the version Wordsworth read was a much expanded version that was new to him. Wordsworth read the poem in hopes that Coleridge would be put in a better mood and that Coleridge would help Wordsworth work on "The Recluse". Portions of the poem were printed in the "Friend" in 1809, but Wordsworth did not wish it to be published because of the private