Remixing in the 1800s

The idea of “remix” is so commonly discussed in regards to music, that people often fail to realize that remix is everywhere, such as in William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” which is a remix of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Journals.  The academic conversation in today’s age often talks about remix, and has even separated it into different categories (Edwards, xxx).

William Wordsworth wrote the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (commonly known now as “Daffodils”) as a remix of his sister Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Journals in around 1807. Dorothy began writing her Grasmere Journals not only to make herself happy, but to please her brother, as well. William thought it would be good for Dorothy to write about their time together, because he thought it would be good inspiration for his poetry. In "From the Grasmere Journals," Dorothy Wordsworth, the author, describes her experiences over a span of days; she talks about beautiful nature scenes, most famously, her and her brother's daffodil encounter (D. Wordsworth, 88), as well as the time she spent with her brother and neighbors. Dorothy uses a lot of very specific, vivid sensory words that allow the reader to "see" the scenes she describes, in great detail.

It is clear that William tries to preserve the details in his poem (W. Wordsworth, 89). It does not at all surprise me that William wanted to remix these beautiful, crystal clear documentations into a poem, especially if one takes into account what era these journals were written, and the academic conversation going on during the time period in which these were written. The poetic world was changing during this period, and William was helping it along.  William is recognised as one of the leading poets in the Romantic Era of poetry, a period devoted to freedom, individuality, and the beauty of nature (poets.org). When we look at the characteristics of Romantic poetry, it becomes increasingly clear why William would want to remix Dorothy’s Grasmere Journals.

In his remix of the Grasmere Journals, William is careful to preserve the most pleasant aspects of Dorothy’s journals. We see the elegant wording woven into each line, and the topic is the same.  William remixed the Grasmere Journals by taking the content and  shifting the descriptive sentences into a poem. This type of remix has been labeled by Dustin Edwards to be Genre Play (Edwards, xxx).  Genre Play is the process of “deploying a text that blends, repurposes, or moves in and out of genre expectations,” (Edwards, xxx). We see this occur in the shift from Dorothy’s informal journals to William’s poem.

These texts are just one example of how remix is around us every day, though we may not realize it. William and Dorothy are just one example of how remix slips into literature every day. Here we have proof that remix, no matter the category, is not just a modern musician’s term.

Word Count: 287