Herbert was Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust in 1998. During that time he helped to organise the annual series of summer poetry readings held in the Museum at Town End, Grasmere; and also a literary conference held in September 98 at the Samling, Dovenest, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Lyrical Ballads. All these events featured many luminaries of the contemporary poetry scene. He also gave more impromptu readings in the Museum to mark points in the year of special interest to readers of Wordsworth and the other Romantics. From all this work arose the idea of a Poet's Calendar, in which the months of the year would each be marked by three pieces of writing: one written by a Romantic poet, one by a more contemporary figure, and one by a visiting writer.
This project was begun by Herbert and Stephen Hebron, whose superior design skills distinguish the first few months. It is continued here at a more rudimentary level.
The Romantic Calendar
(Including dates of composition of some of the poems of
Wordsworth and Coleridge)
January
Byron born 22 Jan 1788
Robert Burns born 25 Jan 1759
Dorothy Wordsworth died 25 Jan 1855
February
Mary Shelley died 1 Feb 1851
Charles Lamb born 10 Feb 1778
Keats died 23 Feb 1821
March
Robert Southey died 21 March 1843
Wordsworth composed 'My heart leaps up when I behold' (Rainbow),
26 March 1802
Intimations of Immortality was begun on 27 March 1802
April
John Wilson 'Christopher North' died 3 April 1854
The first version of Coleridge's Dejection was written 4 April 1802
William Wordsworth born 7 April 1770
Matthew Arnold died 15 April 1888
'I wandered lonely as a cloud' (Daffodils) Dorothy records seeing the daffodils on 15 April 1802
William Hazlitt born 10 April 1778
Byron died 19 April 1824
Wordsworth died 23 April 1850
Mary Wollstonecraft born 27 Apr 1759
May
Charlotte Smith born 4 May 1749
James Hogg died 14 May 1734
Felicia Hemans died 16 May 1835
John Wilson born 18 May 1785
John Clare died 20 May 1864
Humphrey Davy born 29 May 1829
June
Harriet Martineau born 12 June 1802, died 27 June 1876
July
Resolution and Independence (The Leech Gatherer) completed 4 July 1802
Shelley died 8 July 1822
John Clare born 13 July 1793
Burns died 21 July 1796
Coleridge died 25 July 1834
Jane Austen died 18 July 1817
Composed on Westminster Bridge 29 July 1802
August
Shelley born 4 Aug 1792
Blake died 12 Aug 1827
Tennyson born 6 Aug 1809
Robert Southey born 12 Aug 1774
De Quincey born 15 Aug 1785
Walter Scott born 15 Aug 1771
Mary Shelley born 30 Aug 1797
September
Felicia Hemans born 25 Sept 1793
Mary Wollstonecraft died 10 Sept 1797
Scott died 21 Sept 1832
October
Wordsworth meets the Leech Gatherer Oct 3 1800
Tennyson died 6 Oct 1892
Coleridge born 21 Oct 1772
Keats born 31 Oct 1795
November
Blake born 28 Nov 1757
December
Matthew Arnold born 4 Dec 1822
De Quincey died 8 Dec 1859
Jane Austen born 16 Dec 1775
Humphrey Davy 17 Dec 1778
Charles Lamb 27 Dec 1834
Dorothy Wordsworth born 25 Dec 1771
For the opening page of the Poets' Calendar, click here
Those who wish to visit the Wordsworth Trust website should click on the following:
The complete works of WW are available here: http://www.bartleby.com/145/index.html
Or you can just return to biographical irrelevancies