Dora Wordsworth

Who was Dora Wordsworth?

Dorothy "Dora" Wordsworth was the only surviving daughter of William Wordsworth, major Romantic poet and British Poet Laureate. Her babyhood inspired Wordsworth to write "Address To My Infant Daughter" in her honour. As an adult, she is further immortalised by him in the 1828 poem "The Triad", along with Edith Southey and Sara Coleridge, daughters of her father's fellow Lake Poets. In 1843, at the age of 39 Dora Wordsworth married Edward Quillinan, against her father's wishes. Throughout her life, she formed intense romantic attachments to both genders, the most significant being her friendship with Maria Jane Jewsbury. Another close friend was Maria Kinnaird, adoptive daughter of Richard "Conversation" Sharp and the future wife of Thomas Drummond. Dora and Maria were friends from their teenage years and some of their correspondence has survived

Described by her aunt and namesake Dorothy Wordsworth as "at times very beautiful", Dora was devoted to her father and a significant influence on his poetry. Their relationship was particularly close, with Coleridge's son Hartley describing how she "almost adored" him in an 1830 letter.