The Sparrow's Nest Explained

"The Sparrows Nest" is a lyric poem written by William Wordsworth at Town End, Grasmere, in 1801. It was first published in the collection Poems in Two Volumes in 1807.

The poem is a moving tribute to Wordsworth's sister Dorothy, recalling their early childhood together in Cockermouth before they were separated following their mother's death in 1778 when he was barely eight years old.^[1]

History

The 'Emmeline' of the poem is his sister Dorothy.

The poem itself was placed in a section of Poems in Two Volumes entitled Moods of my Mind, in which he grouped together his most deeply felt lyrics. Others included "To a Butterfly", a childhood recollection of chasing butterflies with Dorothy, and "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", closely based on an entry in Dorothy's journal following a walk together and an example of the line "She gave me eyes, she gave me ears" in the poem.^[2]

Bibliography

• Davies, Hunter. William Wordsworth, Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1980
• Gill, Stephen. William Wordsworth: A Life, Oxford University Press 1989
• Gill, Stephen. "William Wordsworth: The Major Works including The Prelude, Oxford University Press 1984
• Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth, A Biography: The Early Years, 1770 - 1803 v. 1, Oxford University Press 1957
• Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth: A Biography: The Later Years, 1803 - 50 v. 2, Oxford University Press 1965
• Wordsworth, Dorothy (ed. Pamela Woof). The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals., Oxford University Press 2002

Notes and References

1. Gill (1989) p. 17
2. Moorman (1965) pp. 96 - 7