Student Standouts and Faculty Feature for September 6, 2024

Senior Reps Team Australia in World Lacrosse U20 Womens Championship, Finishing 4th

Field Hockey Victory in the Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered last week’s field hockey game against Louisville, Kentucky’s Ballard High School, where the Rams won 4-2. Read the recap here which highlights Mallory Jerlecki ’27 (2 goals), Victoria Noble ’28 (one goal), Sophia Goodwin ’25 (one goal), and Amelia Mackin ’26 (five saves). Go, Rams!

Faculty Feature: Ms. Hindle Explores Literary History in Summer Sabbatical

By Louise Hindle, Upper School English Teacher

“William and I took a long walk in the rain,” wrote Dorothy Wordsworth in one of her journals. This was one of many long walks the siblings took together, and with others, in and around the village of Grasmere during 1799-1808. Their home, Dove Cottage, has come to be associated as the home of the English Romantic movement in literature: a place where words were crafted and articulated out loud; where poetry and prose were forged in the presence of nature. Even today, Grasmere, nestled in a valley of the English Lake District, is not especially accessible or populous. Grasmere has cafes, bookshops, small hotels, and craft stores. For the community, there’s an elementary school, the village church, and a village green. The ‘fells’ (read hills or mountains) tower above the settlement and embrace it like a precious secret. Beyond the village rests Grasmere Lake and, a little further, Rydal Water. Over the years, Dove Cottage and its gardens and orchard have been preserved as the home of the Wordsworths. Near to Dove Cottage is a museum for visitors to understand the lives of the Wordsworths and their creative community. Most recently, the Jerwood Center was built to protect and accommodate the Wordsworth archive. 

As a Brit, a keen hiker, and a romantic poetry enthusiast, I had already visited Grasmere a couple of times: July 2024, however, was a particular highlight. Thanks to the generosity of the Edward M. Rivinus Memorial Summer Sabbatical, I spent an additional two days in the U.K., focusing my time in the Jerwood Center exploring the Wordsworth archive. From letters through to journals and commonplace books, I was looking at manuscript and digitized materials from this pivotal moment in literary history. With a particular focus on the women and their everyday lives as companions, sisters, mothers, and writers, I wanted to learn more about their contributions, their talents, and their challenges. It’s hard to describe the thrill (and the trepidation) of seeing the folds of a 19th-century letter and the scratch marks of ink. As each day went by, I tried my best to discover the person behind the writing, paying attention to how they documented their life from talk of the weather, updates on friends and neighbors, through to philosophical reflections on the world. I had hoped to take a glimpse into their world, to better understand what fueled this moment, and even, perhaps, to gain some insight into their writing process. It was, however, so much more than that. This was an immersive experience through archival materials, greatly enhanced by the physical opportunity to hear, see, and re-imagine the ‘sources’ of so many literary outpourings. 

Hardly a day goes by without us being reminded of the numerous benefits of being outdoors, of walking, of connecting with nature. I’m already sold on all of those messages: my experience at Grasmere helped me appreciate even more the long influence of these messages in and through literature; and the ways in which through nature, we might begin to learn more about ourselves and those we encounter along the way. 

Back at school, my literary journey continues: it inspires my interactions with students when we talk about what we’ve read and are aiming to read; I already know that some of these materials will show up as examples of the writer’s process in my curriculum. Beyond this, my research is starting to form its own terrain, perhaps as a course on ‘Landscape, Literature, and the Lived Experience.’

William Wordsworth declared Grasmere to be, ‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.’ If some of the writings of those who visited and collaborated in that spot kindle students’ literary curiosities, it was a trip worth taking!