Wordsworth, William and Dorothy

William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, were so close that not only did they live together for the majority of their lives, but also they each considered the other to be his or her closest confidante and inspiration. Like Wordsworth and his other close associate, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the relationship between William and Dorothy can be seen in each of their literary works. This is no more evident than in William's "I wandered lonely as …

…on page 294 again proves this: "There was here and there a little knot a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway." (Norton, 294) After seeing the way that she leaves these innocent, beautiful flowers from which she received some pleasure, it is obvious that Dorothy wrote for herself, and not an audience, like her brother William.