In preparing her book The Later Wordsworth, Edith C. The portrait of William Wordsworth by Henry William Pickersgill in 1833 (Fig 1) and a sketch by Benjamin Robert Haydon around 1820 likewise show no obvious external signs of ocular disease. Interestingly, even on magnification, this print shows no visible evidence of inflammation or morphological signs in the eyelids, pupils, cornea, or sclerae. 6 He was recovering from an episode of recent eye inflammation when the artist Margaret Gillies painted his portrait a print taken in 1839 appears in the National Portrait Gallery. In 1827, Frederic Reynolds, editor of The Keepsake, gave Wordsworth a blue stone to apply to William’s eyes, which appeared to provide brief relief. 4,5 He wrote to a friend that “it made me so dependent on others, abridges my enjoyments by cutting me off from the power of reading and causes me to lose a great deal of time.” He also said at times his work was so ill-penned and blurred that it was useless “to all but myself.” This must have reminded him of his hero, the poet John Milton, who became totally blind. When he had trouble seeing, his sister Dorothy would read to him. He was also advised that the writing of poetry could worsen the condition. You will be sorry to hear that this infirmity still hangs about me, and almost cuts me off from reading altogether.ĭescribed by his daughter Dora as a “blind man,” she related how he sought repeated medical advice to manage symptoms, which often confined him to darkened rooms for days. But, alas! when the days lengthened, my eyesight departed, and for many months I could not read three minutes at a time. On account of the smallness of the print, deferred doing so till longer days would allow me to read without candle-light, which I have long since given up. And to the celebrated writer Charles Lamb on January 10, 1830, after praising his play, he remarks: on Jhe noted his diseased eyes had cut him off so much from reading. From this time the attacks became more frequent, and he started to wear a green eyeshade to alleviate his symptoms. This coincides with a further attack of symptoms in 1820 when he feared he might be going blind, like his hero Milton. An inflammation in my eyes cut me off from writing and reading, so that I deem it still prudent to employ an Amanuensis In a letter to Professor Hamilton, Observatory, Dublin on July 24, 1820, Wordsworth said: In later life he regularly wore a shade or tinted glasses. Stephen Gill’s biographical note records that Wordsworth’s only serious medical worry was for his eyes, which frequently became so inflamed that he feared he would go blind. The Blind Beggar of Book VII of The Prelude may be based on his experiences. Indeed, in Wordsworth’s poem The Pass of Kirkstone (1817) he records:
My acquaintance with books has therefore been far short of my wishes, and on this account, to acknowledge the services daily and hourly done me by my family and friends, this note is written.īecause trachoma is typically a disease of overcrowding and poverty, it is more likely that he caught the disease in his frequent travels to London and Europe than in the solitary summit of Kirkstone.
Frequently has the disease recurred since, leaving the eyes in a state which has often prevented my reading for months, and makes me at this day incapable of bearing without injury any strong light by day or night. The complaint in my eyes which gave occasion to this address to my daughter first showed itself as a consequence of inflammation, caught at the top of Kirkstone, when I was over-heated by having carried up the ascent my eldest son, a lusty infant.
His own account in a comment on his poem A little Onward lend thy guiding hand is worth quoting: His daughter Dora and many others referred to him as “the blind poet.” 1,2 Considering his huge output of written works, this might occasion surprise. At times this was so severe that it restricted both his writing and reading. It is often reported that from 1805 until his death Wordsworth experienced recurring episodes of the infectious disease trachoma, which causes painful inflammation of the eyelids and conjunctiva and can cause blindness. A prolific writer of letters, essays, and poetry, he was elected poet laureate. He was the totemic father of the Lakeland poets, who extolled the relation between man and the natural world: a wedding between nature and the human mind that to him symbolized the mind of God. William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, on April 7, 1770. William Wordsworth: “The blind poet”? April 5, 2022