Last month, I was lucky enough to go to the Wordsworth Summer Conference for the first time on a bursary. I had the privilege of staying at Rydal Hall for ten days filled with fascinating talks and walking tours of the enchanting landscapes of William Wordsworth’s beloved Lake District. As a Romanticist, going there had been a dream of mine for years, especially since Taylor Swift released her song “the lakes” — the bonus track of her album folklore — in August of 2020. At last, in August of 2023, I went to the Lakes where all the poets went to die and I had the time of my life.

Take me to the Lakes where all the poets went to die
I don’t belong, and, my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I’m setting off, but not without my muse
No, not without you

— “the lakes,” Taylor Swift

“In preparing this Manual, it was the Author’s principal wish to furnish a Guide or Companion for the Minds of Persons of taste, and feeling for Landscape, who might be inclined to explore the District of the Lakes with that degree of attention to which its beauty may fairly lay claim.”

— William Wordsworth, Guide to the Lakes (1835)

While I was there, I got to deliver my very first conference paper, “Picturesque Tourism in the Lake District from William Wordsworth to Taylor Swift: Aesthetic Attention and Literary Legacy.” Yes, of course, as both a Romanticist and a Swiftie, upon attending a Romantic literature conference held in the Lake District, I just had to discuss Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes (1810 - 1835) in relation to Taylor Swift’s song “the lakes.” It was nerve-wracking to speak in front of an audience of much more experienced Romanticists, including some big names in the world of Romantic studies (such as Nicholas Roe, Seamus Perry, Bruce Graver, Jill Heydt-Stevenson, Orianne Smith, Erica McAlpine, and more), especially since I decided to draw a connection between Wordsworth — that is, one of the greatest authors in the English language — and Taylor Swift. Thankfully, as it turns out, I did really well and the paper was well-received. My talk fostered an interesting discussion on the enduring cultural legacy of Romanticism, as well as whether Taylor Swift’s oeuvre might have a Wordsworthian ethos.

If you’d like to read the written version of my paper, you can access it in the Writing section of the website, or here, or here.

William Green, *Grasmere*, from *Lake Scenery* (1815)

In between panels and lectures, my conference buddies and I got to go on our own tour of the Lake District. We visited some iconic picturesque locations, such as the Coffin Route (which offers beautiful views on Rydal Water), Castlerigg Stone Circle, Ambleside, the northern end of Windermere — whose peaks do look like a perfect place to cry — Rydal Mount (where Wordsworth lived from 1813 until his death in 1850), and Grasmere — town and lake — where we had a peak at Dove Cottage (where William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived from 1799 to 1808) and attended a presentation of some of the most precious books of the Jerwood Center — including the original copy of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere journal and an 1810 edition of William Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes — where most of William and Dorothy Wordsworth’s manuscripts are stored.

And, most of all, I got to meet wonderful people, who also happen to be brilliant scholars, who made the whole experience memorable. I had the time of my life nerding out over Romanticism with them and walking in Wordsworth’s, Keats’s, and Taylor Swift’s footsteps. I hope I get to attend the Wordsworth Summer Conference again next summer — and why not every summer thereafter?