ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we discuss the exhibition Wordsworth and Bashō: Walking Poets, held at Dove Cottage in the Lake District, UK, in 2014, in the wider context of Romantic anti-urbanism. The main aim of the exhibition was to compare the work of two famous poets in the context of the unique landscape of the English Lake District. We show how these poets are linked through the agency of walking within the wider context of anti-urbanism and then discuss contemporary artistic responses to the poets. We then discuss the ways in which walking informed the making of the artistic works in the exhibition itself and we conclude by reflecting further on walking and anti-urbanism more generally.
