The Poets Daughters: Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge

The Poets¡¯ Daughters:

Dora Wordsworth and

Sara Coleridge

Katharine Mary Waldegrave

Submitted for the degree of PhD in Life Writing

Univerity of East Anglia

Registration Number: 3352749/2

October 2014

Word Count:109,412

This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults

it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use

of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK

Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full

attribution.

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ABSTRACT

Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge were lifelong friends. They were also

the daughters of best friends: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

the two poetic geniuses who shaped the Romantic Age. Living in the shadow of

their fathers¡¯ extraordinary fame brought Sara and Dora great privilege, but at a

terrible cost. In different ways, each father almost destroyed his daughter. And

in different ways each daughter made her father. Growing up in the shadow of

genius, both girls made it their ambition to dedicate themselves to their father¡¯s

writing and reputation. Anorexia, drug addiction and depression were part of the

legacy of fame, but so too were great friendship and love.

In this thesis I give the never-before-told story of how two young women, born

into greatness, shaped their own histories. In doing I also re-examine the lives of

Wordsworth and Coleridge and the significant role Dora and Sara played in their

lives, their writing and their legacies. My study of the lives of Dora Wordsworth

and Sara Coleridge was written as a biography aimed at a readership beyond

academia. While the narrative is based on primary manuscript sources, I have

deliberately used the techniques of the professional biographer to create

character, pace, conflict and drama.

In order to fit within the PhD assessment criteria, which requires me to

submit no more than 100,000 words, the material submitted here is an abridged

version of a full-length double biography of Dora and Sara. This main thesis is

preceded by a short critical essay with some details about the nature of the

research as well as assessment of the PhD¡¯s contribution to knowledge.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................... 3

Table of Contents ................................................................................................... 5

Critical Essay .......................................................................................................... 7

Wordsworth family tree ....................................................................................... 17

The Coleridge and Southey/Fricker family tree .................................................. 18

Illustrations ........................................................................................................... 20

Foreword .............................................................................................................. 29

Pr ol og u e ............................................................................................................. 31

P a r t O n e ......................................................................................................... 33

Chapter 1: ¡®The Shadow of a Shade¡¯, 1808 ................................................ 34

Chapter 2: ¡®The Aunt-Hill¡¯, 1810 ...................................................................... 48

Chapter 3: ¡®An Agony of Tears¡¯, 1812 ............................................................. 56

Chapter 4: ¡®These Dark Steps¡¯ , 1816 ............................................................ 64

Chapter 5: ¡®Like the Graces¡¯ , 1821-22 .......................................................... 74

Chapter 6: ¡®Prime a nd Pride of Youth¡¯ ,1823 ........................................... 85

P a r t T w o ........................................................................................................ 96

Chapter 7: Preci s - ¡® Budding, Billing, Singing We athe r¡¯, 1823 ....... 97

Chapter 8: Preci s - ¡® The Parrot and t he Wre n¡¯ , 1 8 2 6 ........................... 98

Chapter 9: Precis: Bridesmaid and Bride, 1828-29 .......................................... 99

Chapter 10: ¡®Sorrows of the Night¡¯ , 1834 .................................................. 101

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