William Wordsworth
British · Late 18th–early 19th century
English Romantic poet, author of The Prelude, known for lyrical poetry composed in the Lake District with Coleridge and his sister Dorothy.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry draws structural parallels between Wordsworth's revision process (multiple versions of The Prelude from organic/oral to literary/sanitized) and Taylor's two versions of All Too Well. Taylor's song 'the lakes' is set in Wordsworth's Lake District.
Notable Works
- The Prelude, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, Lyrical Ballads (with Coleridge), I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Angela & Uncle Jerry connect Taylor's statement in the Long Pond Sessions that she goes to the lakes 'in her head' to Wordsworth's poem about the daffodils (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud), in which Wordsworth says whenever he is in pensive mood in the city, he thinks of the daffodils. Uncle Jerry says this echoes the Romantic tenet of the inward turning of the mind, both Taylor and Wordsworth revisit nature mentally when they cannot be there physically.
Lyrical Ballads
“Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the entire song as a neo-Romantic poem modelled on the principles laid out by Wordsworth and Coleridge in the Lyrical Ballads, common language, common people, and an inward turning of the mind. Uncle Jerry argues Taylor adopts all three tenets: her use of common modern language ('sleaze,' 'cell phones'), her focus on ordinary experience, and her confessional inward turning. The Lyrical Ballads preface is treated as the manifesto Taylor is consciously echoing.
The Prelude
Angela & Uncle Jerry compare the structural relationship between the 5-minute and 10-minute versions of All Too Well to Wordsworth's multiple versions of The Prelude (1799, 1805, 1850). Uncle Jerry notes that the 1799 version is more oral and organic, with elements of orality and redundancy, while the 1850 version was sanitized and made more literary. He draws a parallel to how Taylor's original 10-minute version was more raw and oral, while the 5-minute version was edited down for general consumption. The comparison is about process and structure rather than content.