Whether their relationship was sexual is something no one but Dorothy and William Wordsworth will ever know, and that’s as it should be (Wordsworth siblings’ passion explained, 16 March). But once again, no mention was made in your report of Dorothy’s own poetic gifts and their influence on William’s poetry.
We very likely wouldn’t have had that everlasting daffodils poem if she hadn’t seen the field of flowers in bloom first and told William to go and look at them. She read and criticised all of his poems before he sent them off for publication and was a respected critic of the works of their entire circle. She did this while cooking, cleaning, growing the food they ate, making clothes for herself and William (at one point, even shoes) – doing everything that allowed him to be free to write.
William relied on her taste, perceptions and artistic sensibility, and he needed them for the creation of his poetry.
Dorothy Wordsworth’s beautiful journals are a revelation. She was an amazing woman. Identifying her again and again primarily as William Wordsworth’s sister exemplifies the sexism that continues to pervade our worldview. It drives me crazy.
Shirley Stuart
Berkeley, California, USA
• More of Romantic Wordsworth (Editorial, 17 March) is visible in his sonnet, The World Is Too Much With Us. From the time when Margaret Thatcher stood smiling outside the door of No 10 in 1979 quoting with a bright smile the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, I, in total contrast, memorised a poem of Wordsworth’s that I could repeat constantly while walking (sometimes during her reign, through gnashed teeth) and chose this one. It reminds me that politics will always about the balance between power and morality.
Sylvia Ayling,
Woodford Green, London
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