Lake Poets was mostly a prose writer and did not particularly subscribe to the Wordsworthian vision of the Lakes. Southey, like Wordsworth, started out on the republican left, but, by the time the threat from Napoleon had dwindled, he had become the embodiment of a Tory extolling the virtues of nation and patriotism, and using the Lakes as a touchstone, and as "the symbol of the nation's covenant with God." Letitia Elizabeth Landon's sketch, "Grasmere Lake, A Sketch by a Cockney", in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1834, is a spoof on the Lake Poets, whom she admired (especially Wordsworth) but regarded
Early life of William Wordsworth until Coleridge decided to look for a place to live at Ratzeburg. Wordsworth wanted to join his friend, but was forced to decline over monetary issues; Wordsworth was unable to provide for both himself and his sister in such an expensive town, and they instead moved to Goslar. The separation, with the expenses, made it impossible for Wordsworth to spend time with Coleridge until after the winter of 1798. Wordsworth continued to write even without the support of Coleridge's company, and from October 1798 to February 1799 Wordsworth began writing the "Matthew" poems along with the "Lucy" poems and other