[E]xplore the influence of the Lake District on William Wordsworth with a free online course, filmed at his home, Dove Cottage, Grasmere.
Lancaster University will re-run its popular, award-winning, online course which explores the influence of the Lake District on William Wordsworth and the writing process behind some of his best-known poetry.
The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is now open for registration on FutureLearn, which provides free online courses from world-class universities.
The course ‘William Wordsworth: Poetry, People and Place’ has been designed for the general public – for those who have not read Wordsworth before and for those who are familiar with his poetry.
Course leader Professor Simon Bainbridge said: “This free online course brings together the academic strengths of Lancaster University with the unparalleled resources and curatorial expertise of the Wordsworth Trust.
“The course will enable participants to appreciate why the beautiful landscape of the Lake District was so important for William Wordsworth. It will also give learners a sense of what it is like to work with Wordsworth’s own manuscripts and to understand why and how he wrote his greatest poetry.
“Participants will study how Wordsworth created and revised some of his greatest works including the famous ‘Daffodils’ and ‘The Prelude’ (his autobiographical masterpiece). We will draw on the magnificent collection of manuscripts held by the Wordsworth Trust in the museum next to his home.”
The course was filmed in Grasmere, Ullswater and Hawkshead – places Wordsworth wrote about – as well as Dove Cottage, where he lived from 1799 to 1808 and produced much of his greatest poetry.
The MOOC has been produced in association with the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, and runs from September 4.
