Abstract

In this essay I explain the background to the exhibition Wordsworth and Basho: Walking Poets, comparing the work of three poets and writers (William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Matsuo Basho) whose worlds (and poetry), some suggest, could not be further apart, and in this I am greatly indebted to American Emeritus Professor John Elder who has undertaken the only (to my knowledge) serious comparative study of the two poets and whose support and contribution to this project has been enormously encouraging. I describe how the project began, and the process behind the commissioning of new work for the show. My colleague, Carol McKay, discusses elsewhere in this publication the work of each artist and links it to the themes outlined in this introduction, showing how their work has been influenced by the poetry and prose of either Dorothy and William Wordsworth or Bashō or all three.

The first question readers of this essay and visitors to the exhibition might ask is; how can we compare the work of three writers who lived a century apart, in two very different cultures, at opposite ends of the globe?

And the second question that may be asked is: why have we chosen to commission contemporary artists to highlight the work of poets and writers who lived a long time ago?

I hope, in this essay, to answer these questions, and in doing so, enable the manuscripts of Dorothy and William Wordsworth and Bashō presented here to be seen in a fresh and exciting light.