A Utopian Scheme by the Lake Poets

By Fen

Over two hundred years ago, the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey had a vision for a utopian scheme inspired by pantisocracy - a Greek word meaning equal rule - as a way to overcome a culture of servitude and oppression caused by politics. They planned to abandon society’s corrupting influences for a fresh start in the wilderness.

Coleridge and Southey envisioned a simpler and more peaceful way of life where each community member would only have to work just two to three hours per day to sustain the venture.

William and Dorothy Wordsworth, the English Lakeland’s most renowned literary brother and sister, were also inspired by this grand plan, together with poet Robert Lovell, the three Fricker sisters - Sara, Edith and Mary Fricker, and George Burnett to name but a few.

They originally intended to establish such a community in the United States to enjoy a more relaxing and vital life than was possible in England. They even chose a site on the Susquehanna riverbank after considering other places such as Kentucky.

They viewed the utopian scheme as an experiment that, if successful, might be gradually extended to other communities. Coleridge also hoped that the active, natural lifestyle would prove healthier and more wholesome for him and his family.

After much consideration, Southey had doubts about the viability of creating their utopia abroad and proposed moving the project to Wales. Practical implications and personal issues - the stuff that often gets in the way of realising a dream - eventually caused the plan to dissipate.

For a short time, the visionaries did share a house in the Lake District. This was at the spectacular Greta Hall, which sits on a small hill in the Keswick valley - a five minute walk from Keswick's Market Square, and just a 10 minute stroll to the bottom of Latrigg/Skiddaw and Derwentwater.

Coleridge lived at Greta Hall with his family from July 1800 until 1803 and regularly visited William and Dorothy Wordsworth in Grasmere. Southey and his wife came to stay with the Coleridge’s in 1803, and took over the tenancy of Greta Hall when Coleridge left in 1804. Southey lived there until his death in 1843.

Greta Hall was visited by a number of the Lake Poets and other literary and artistic figures including William Hazlitt, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sir Walter Scott, Sir George Beaumont, Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb, Thomas De Quincey and John Ruskin.

Pantisocracy

No more my Visionary Soul shall dwell
On Joys that were! No more endure to weigh
The Shame and Anguish of the evil Day,
Wisely forgetful! O'er the Ocean swell
Sublime of Hope I seek the cottag'd Dell,
Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray,
And dancing to the moonlight Roundelay
The Wizard Passions weave an holy Spell.
Eyes that have ach'd with Sorrow! Ye shall weep
Tears of doubt-mingled Joy, like theirs who start
From Precipices of distemper'd Sleep,
On which the fierce-eyed Fiends their Revels keep,
And see the rising Sun, and feel it dart
New Rays of Pleasance trembling to the Heart.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1794)

Where are we now?

Just over two centuries ago, these great poets and artists navigated the craziness of the world in much the same way as some of us do now… creating art as a way of expressing our heart’s desires and what needs to be said, retreating to wild spots in nature to restore equilibrium, and finding wholesome ways to thrive in a world run by tarnished hearts and power-hungry minds.

Today, many of us still hold the vision for creating a kinder, gentler and fairer way of life in harmony with nature. Perhaps it’s our time to make it so.

How on earth do we change the world?

We start with a vision for the kind of world we want.

We plant seeds, sharing the vision to inspire hearts and minds.

We take one step at a time… quietly and simply.

Together, we move towards a beautiful life built on love.

~ Fen

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