Mountain, Water, Mother Tongue The Poetic Heimat of Nikolaus von Maillot and William Wordsworth

This study presents a parallel reading of the German‑speaking Belgian poet Nikolaus von Maillot de la Treille (1820–1883) and the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) through the concept ofpoetic Heimat. Rather than tracing influence or measuring literary status, it proposes a dialogue centered on three interwoven motifs: mountain, water, and mother tongue. Both poets developed their work in regions with their own distinct character—Wordsworth in the Lake District, Maillot in the Eupen countryside of eastern Belgium. Both turned to landscape not as picturesque scenery but as the ground of perception, memory, and language. The study argues that for each poet, “home” is neither a given territory nor a nostalgic ideal, but something constructed through poetic labor: a place where language still feels native and landscape still carries meaning. By placing Maillot alongside Wordsworth, the study contributes to a broader understanding of European Romanticism as a field of multiple, parallel “poetics of place,” and offers a new framework for engaging with literary traditions in multilingual contexts without reducing them to hierarchical comparisons. The study draws on close readings ofThe Prelude,The River Duddon, and theLyrical Balladsfor Wordsworth, and on Maillot’s collectionsGedichte(1842),Neue Gedichte(1857), andHeimatklänge(1868) for Maillot. All translations from Maillot are the author’s own. Email:bo.xia@posteo.de