Grasmere - where I realized what does it take to be a poet...

      Today I visited the Dove Cottage in Grasmere, Lake District. For over fifty years it was the home of on of the British foremost poets, William Wordsworth. Alike other Lake Poets, he was taken away by the beauty of the place and decided to seek inspiration for his poems here, on the shore of the lake Grasmere.
 

     Outdoor shops and gingerbread

      First however, we had a walk through the village. It is nice. Few outdoor shops are embedded in the tiled houses, thence do not interfere with the colorit. You should try the traditional gingerbread in local bakery. It is different from the sponge cake we deem gingerbread in Slovakia. This is more that of small, spicy biscuits. Gift shop across the street offered variety of cuckoo clocks. I should get one when I live in my own cottage. Or yacht, the cuckoo will wear captain‘s cap. Another shop displayed authentic paintings, some priced over 2800£. Around the corner is a church dedicated to St Oswald, dated back to 7th century. It is surrounded by the typical churchyard with stone tombs. At night someone would call it frightening. 

     
The Dove Cottage and my the creative centre

       A stroll down the street finally took us to the Dove Cottage. Here Wordsworth really lived out his name because the words written in the waste cottage with wooden roof are relay worth reading. 

Next to the cottage is the museum, tea room and family centre. I covet to mention the comics version of ‚The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that is to be found in the centre, together with other books by the Racists. The visitors, meant children, can draw pictures and try their hands on poetry. Actually, I used the contemporary rolls of paper to put together a few lines. Here realised that merely coming to Lake District is far away from becoming a poet. A layman might think that it is enough to put together few lines of rhyming words, interwoven by from-time-to-time alliteration or another figure and add some plot. My lines, although they meet all the attributes, backfire this presumption.

“Ancient mariner shot the albatross,

And sentenced the ship’s crew to the eternal loss.

Crew condemned the course of discontent,

Their decision ain't lest transparent.

Thence all the awe of every fishing boss.

Thou honour the memory of albatross.

Original poem inspired by captain cook.

Short of time can’t get more rhymes of the hook.”

     On poetry

     As you might have experienced, it does not read well, nor contains any witty idea.

It is lacking the inspiration, something that turns the mainstream lines into something unique. A good poet should experience the outer world very vividly to kick start his imagination. But he must be very considerate of how much if his heart he would put on the paper. Originality of the poem lies on the thin line between the rationale and emotion.

      One can be influenced by his childhood, credentials form an elite university, affairs with famous actresses, cleverness in tax evasions, disappointment that his work can not oversell even Justin Bieber; but eventually the reader does not care a thing. Nor does the critique, lest he should because it his job to be consistent. He sees only the poem and its message and that matters.