Walking Philosophy and Poetry

Walking Philosophy and Poetry

The Lake District bathed in sun light is a beautiful place, in rain and cloud, full of awe. It certainly is a place to reflect upon the human condition and man’s place in the great scheme of things. I get maudlin in the mist and dwell on Dido’s Lament:

When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in, in thy breast.
When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in, in thy breast.
Remember me, remember me, but ah!
Forget my fate.
Remember me, but ah!
Forget my fate.

Perhaps it is my Welshness or just the nature of mountain people to brood on the harshness of life. So many poems of R.S. Thomas come to mind too in the mountains -  sheep living in a gap in the clouds becomes a reality.

In this mood I always return to my obsession with the state of mind of Wordsworth and Coleridge when they too were in wet white landscapes. Did the mountains really put them in a similar frame of mind – is it where they contemplated life, death, God?  Both of them had tempestuous relationships with friends and family to brood on too, they had complicated and difficult lives. The poetry of the two is evidence that they did consider great ‘ideas’, Coleridge often referred to as philosopher and theologian, while Wordsworth as philosopher is overlooked.

Roger Scuton, in his excellent essay about Spinoza, quotes Wordsworth’s The Prelude as encapsulating Spinoza’s position in many ways:

I felt the sentiment of Being spread

O’er all that moves and all that seemeth still;

O’er all that, lost beyond the reach of thought

And human knowledge, to the human eye

Invisible, yet liveth to the heart;

O’er all that leaps and runs, and shouts and sings,

Or beats the gladsome air; o’er all that glides

Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself,

And mighty depth of waters.

It is a pity that Wordsworth is commonly reduced to one line of poetry, and Coleridge is thought to have been a lonely befuddled drug addict.

Continuing the contemplation of the human condition in Black Sail youth hostel in Ennerdale there is the dedication to Chris Brasher another great thinker. He was famous  for getting things done and planning ‘ on the back of an envelope’.

There is a quote from Browning that goes with the dedication to Brasher

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

The mounains are where thoughts drift down…….