short biography of william wordsworth in 200 words

Short Essay on William Wordsworth [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

William Wordsworth was a great English poet of the 18-19th century. Sometimes in our lives, we all have read some poetry of Wordsworth. He was such a poet who always stayed connected with nature. In this lesson, you will learn how to write an essay on the life of this great nature poet. So, without further delay, let’s get started.

Short Essay on William Wordsworth in 100 Words

William Wordsworth was one of the significant Romantic poets of nineteenth-century England. He was born in 1770, and died in 1850, at the age of 80. Wordsworth is principally known for his several poems and criticisms. His major work, the Lyrical Ballads ( 1798), is a great composition.

He created this composition through a collaboration with his friend and companion Coleridge. Wordsworth is ethically a guardian to all other Romantic literature since he started the Romantic movement in England. The primary topic for poetry is love for nature as the only repose to human suffering. The language of Wordsworth’s poem is prosaic, yet profound.

Short Essay on William Wordsworth in 200 Words

 William Wordsworth is by far the best-known Romantics among all his contemporaries. He was born in 1770, in Cockermouth in Britain. Wordsworth created completely different rhetoric for his poetry that allowed every single layman to decipher it. For him, poetry is the democracy of the countrymen. The language of a Romantic poem is essentially characterised by lucid language.

Wordsworth is the pioneer of such poetic diction. As the master of Romantics, he along with Coleridge, composed The Lyrical Ballads which is a landmark in English literary history, since it departed from the old traditions and created a completely new pattern for the readers.

Wordsworth celebrates nature through his poems. His significant verses include The Tintern Abbey, The Daffodils, The Lucy poems, The Preludes, and The Excursion. In all these poems he places nature as the central imagery. He includes incidents of common life and relates his poetry with that. In The Daffodils, the long fields of the yellow fluttering flowers appeal to the mind of the poet.

The rustic life is chosen by Wordsworth since it captures the eternal passion of human life and true sensibilities. Wordsworth is a mystic and a thinker, who blends poetry, spirituality, and philosophy together. He demised at the age of 80, at Rydals, Britain.

Short Essay on William Wordsworth in 400 Words

William Wordsworth is a man of miracles in the canon of British literature. He was born on 7th April 1770 at Cockermouth, UK. In him, the readers can observe a thinker, poet, philosopher, mystic, and critic altogether. His spouse was Mary Hutchinson. Wordsworth’s poetry can be categorised into 3 divisions- firstly, the poetry of nature, secondly, a man in relation with nature, and thirdly, the relation of man, nature, and social living. 

Wordsworth is a poet of nature. He worships nature not because of its outer beauty, but because of the presence of a spirit in every object of nature. He finds it everywhere- in hills, valleys, springs, rivers, birds, and flowers. He calls Nature, “ the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being’’. The animals also become part of his nature observation. So his important poems like White Doe, The cuckoo, The Skylark have a mystic love in his poetry. 

Not just nature he is also a poet of man. The 1801 edition of the Lyrical Ballads contains a Preface by Wordsworth that defines the idea of Romantic movement and the concept of writing poetry as the ‘’ spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions’’. For him the unsophisticated man becomes important.

The lucidity of his language is for man, where his poetry is a democratic approach to creation. It is the language of commoners, simple and rustic. The chief note in his poems is love for nature. It is a living force in his verse, and it includes humble rural folk, the shepherds, the rustic, the innocent, and the children. 

Wordsworth’s chief pastoral poems are Descriptive Sketches, The Preludes, Odeon Intimation of Immortality, The Excursion, and others. In each of these poems, nature is the teacher, that educates men of the essence of their life. In fact, nature contains God as the poet considers it.

Wordsworth views God in every aspect of Nature. In his view, nature and man are one and together. So he considers the simple village life. His poetic vision is that of harmony and peace. Nature is ideal for humans to remain divine and secluded. The poet sees these as inseparable parts of the spiritual operation. 

This great poet died in the year 1850, at the age of 80. Wordsworth is a master of poetry placed after Shakespeare and Milton. He is an inspired poet and his poems heal men from their anxieties and distractions.

So, that’s all about writing essays on the life of William Wordsworth. In this session, I have tried to concise the life of the great poet within very limited words. Moreover, I tried to present the entire session in simple language for all kinds of students. Hopefully, now you will be able to write such an essay yourself. If you still have any doubts regarding this session, let me know through the comment section below. To read more such essays, keep browsing our website. 

Kindly join our Telegram channel to get the latest updates on our upcoming sessions. Thank you. See you again, soon. 

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Biography Online

William Wordsworth Biography

Early life – William Wordsworth

Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, in north-west England. His father, John Wordsworth, introduced the young William to the great poetry of Milton and Shakespeare , but he was frequently absent during William’s childhood. Instead, Wordsworth was brought up by his mother’s parents in Penrith, but this was not a happy period. He frequently felt in conflict with his relations and at times contemplated ending his life. However, as a child, he developed a great love of nature, spending many hours walking in the fells of the Lake District. He also became very close to his sister, Dorothy, who would later become a poet in her own right.

In 1778, William was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School in Lancashire; this separated him from his beloved sister for nearly nine years. In 1787, he entered St. John’s College, Cambridge. It was in this year that he had his first published work, a sonnet in the European Magazine . While still a student at Cambridge, in 1790, he travelled to revolutionary France. He was deeply impressed by the revolutionary spirit and the principles of liberty and egalite. He also fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon; together they had an illegitimate daughter, Anne Caroline.

Friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

After graduating, Wordsworth was fortunate to receive a legacy of £900 from Raisley Calvert to pursue a career in literature. He was able to publish his first collection of poems, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches . That year he was also to meet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. They became close friends and collaborated on poetic ideas. They later published a joint work – Lyrical Ballards (1798), and Wordsworth greatest work ‘ The Prelude ‘ was initially called by Wordsworth ‘ To Coleridge ‘

This period was important for Wordsworth and also the direction of English poetry. With Coleridge , Keats and Shelley , Wordsworth helped create a much more spontaneous and emotional poetry. It sought to depict the beauty of nature and the quintessential depth of human emotion. In the preface to Lyrical Ballards , Wordsworth writes of poetry:

“The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

Lyrical Ballards includes some of his best-known poems, such as, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, “A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal”.

A SLUMBER did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees.

– W. Wordsworth 1799.

In 1802, after returning from a brief visit to see his daughter, Wordsworth married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy continued to live with the couple, and she became close to Mary as well as her brother. William and Mary had five children, though three died early.

Lake District, North Windermere, near Grasmere.

In 1807, he published another important volume of poetry “ Poems, in Two Volumes “, this included famous poems such as; “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, “My Heart Leaps Up”, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.”

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils;

– W. Wordsworth – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

In 1813, he received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland; this annual income of £400 gave him greater financial security and enabled him to devote his spare time to poetry. In 1813, he family also moved into Rydal Mount, Grasmere; a picturesque location, which inspired his later poetry.

“My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die!”

Poet Laureate

By the 1820s, the critical acclaim for Wordsworth was growing, though ironically critics note that, from this period, his poetry began losing some of its vigour and emotional intensity. His poetry was perhaps a reflection of his own ideas. The 1790s had been a period of emotional turmoil and faith in the revolutionary ideal. Towards the end of his life, his disillusionment with the French Revolution had made him more conservative in outlook. In 1839 he received an honorary degree from Oxford University and received a civil pension of £300 a year from the government. In 1843, he was persuaded to become the nation’s Poet Laureate, despite saying he wouldn’t write any poetry as Poet Laureate. Wordsworth is the only Poet Laureate who never wrote poetry during his official time in the job.

Wordsworth died of pleurisy on 23 April 1850. He was buried in St Oswald’s Church Grasmere. After his death, his widow Mary published his autobiographical ‘Poem to Coleridge’ under the title “The Prelude”.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of William Wordsworth” , Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net , 22nd Jan. 2010. Last updated 6th March 2018

William Wordsworth – The Major Works

William Wordsworth – The Major Works at Amazon

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• William Wordsworth profile at BBC

William Wordsworth

(1770-1850)

Who Was William Wordsworth?

Poet William Wordsworth worked with Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Lyrical Ballads (1798). The collection, which contained Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," introduced Romanticism to English poetry. Wordsworth also showed his affinity for nature with the famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." He became England's poet laureate in 1843, a role he held until his death in 1850.

Poet William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was 7, and he was an orphan at 13. Despite these losses, he did well at Hawkshead Grammar School — where he wrote his first poetry — and went on to study at Cambridge University. He did not excel there, but managed to graduate in 1791.

Wordsworth had visited France in 1790 — in the midst of the French Revolution — and was a supporter of the new government’s republican ideals. On a return trip to France the next year, he fell in love with Annette Vallon, who became pregnant. However, the declaration of war between England and France in 1793 separated the two. Left adrift and without income in England, Wordsworth was influenced by radicals such as William Godwin.

In 1795, Wordsworth received an inheritance that allowed him to live with his sister, Dorothy. That same year, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The two became friends, and together worked on Lyrical Ballads (1798). The volume contained poems such as Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," and helped Romanticism take hold in English poetry.

The same year that Lyrical Ballads was published, Wordsworth began writing The Prelude , an epic autobiographical poem that he would revise throughout his life (it was published posthumously in 1850). While working on The Prelud e, Wordsworth produced other poetry, such as "Lucy." He also wrote a preface for the second edition of Lyrical Ballads ; it described his poetry as being inspired by powerful emotions and would come to be seen as a declaration of Romantic principles.

"Though nothing can bring back the hour, Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower." -- from Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

In 1802, a temporary lull in fighting between England and France meant that Wordsworth was able to see Vallon and their daughter, Caroline. After returning to England, he wed Mary Hutchinson, who gave birth to the first of their five children in 1803. Wordsworth was also still writing poetry, including the famous "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and "Ode: Intimations of Immortality." These pieces were published in another Wordsworth collection, Poems, in Two Volumes (1807).

Evolving Poetry and Philosophy

As he grew older, Wordsworth began to reject radicalism. In 1813, he was named as a distributor of stamps and moved his family to a new home in the Lake District. By 1818, Wordsworth was an ardent supporter of the conservative Tories.

Though Wordsworth continued to produce poetry — including moving work that mourned the deaths of two of his children in 1812 — he had reached a zenith of creativity between 1798 and 1808. It was this early work that cemented his reputation as an acclaimed literary figure.

In 1843, Wordsworth became England's poet laureate, a position he held for the rest of his life. At the age of 80, he died on April 23, 1850, at his home in Rydal Mount, Westmorland, England.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: William Wordsworth
• Birth Year: 1770
• Birth date: April 7, 1770
• Birth City: Cockermouth, Cumberland, England
• Birth Country: United Kingdom
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: At the end of the 18th century, poet William Wordsworth helped found the Romantic movement in English literature. He also wrote "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• Cambridge University
• Death Year: 1850
• Death date: April 23, 1850
• Death City: Rydal Mount, Westmorland, England
• Death Country: United Kingdom

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: William Wordsworth Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/william-wordsworth
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: October 27, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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William Wordsworth

In 1797, the Romantic Movement in English literature assumed its definite shape. William Wordsworth was among the founding members and the most significant figure of Romanticism in English Literature. He is recognized as a spiritual poet who has epistemological thought. He was the poet who focused on the relationship of humans to nature. He advocated the use of ordinary and everyday vocabulary and speech pattern poetry.

He started writing poetry when he was in grammar school. He went on a tour of Europe before graduation; this tour developed his affection for nature and compassion for an ordinary man. Nature and common man are the main themes of his poetry. Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and T.S Coleridge is marked as the founding stone of Romanticism. Moreover, his poem, “The Prelude,” is one of his best poems, relating the “growth of a poet’s mind.”

A Short Biography of William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland, England, on 7 th April 1770. At the age of 7, his mother died. Following the death of his mother, his father also died when he was 13 years old. Though he had lost a significant part of his life, he continued to perform well at the Hawkshead Grammar School. At Grammar School, he wrote his first poetry. After graduating from school, he went to Cambridge University for higher studies; however, he could not outshine and managed to graduate in 1791.

In 1790, during the French Revolution, Wordsworth visited France and supported the ideals of the new republican government. In 1791, on his return trip to France, he met Annette Vallon and fell in love with her. However, both were separated due to the declaration of war between the French and English in 1973. Wondering in England without any job, he was greatly influenced by activists like William Godwin. 

William Wordsworth as a Poet

Wordsworth received an inheritance in 1975 that made him live with his sister. In the same year, Wordsworth came across Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and they became good friends. They started working together on the most famous work of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, that was then published in 1798.   The volume was composed of the poems “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge and “Tintern Abbey” by Wordsworth.

Wordsworth also started writing The Prelude in 1798. The work is an auto-biological epic poem that he revised throughout his life. When he was working on The Prelude, he also wrote the poem “Lucy” and preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads . In the preface, he explained what poetry really is and said that it is “spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling and emotion, recollected in tranquility.” This preface was considered as the declaration of Romantic principles.

In 1802, the war between France and England had been stopped temporarily, and Wordsworth got a chance to see his beloved Vallon and their daughter, Caroline. When he returned to England, he married Mary Hutchinson. In 1803, their first child was born. Meanwhile, he was also writing poetry. The poetry he wrote in this time includes “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.” These poems published the collection of Two Volumes in 1807.

Between the years 1782 to 1808, Wordsworth wrote an immense number of poems, even the most touching that mourn the death of his two children. During this period, his creativity had reached a peak. The work that Wordsworth produced during this period made him one of the most acclaimed poets.

Developing Poetry, Philosophy, and Death

As Wordsworth was growing old, he started rejecting radicalism. In 1813, he was titled as “a distributor of stamps.” He moved with his family to a new place in the Lake District in the same years. In 1818, he started supporting the conservative Tories very enthusiastically.

Wordsworth became the poet laureate of England in 1843. He held this position until his death. He died at the age of 80, on 23 rd April 1850.

William Wordsworth’s Writing Style

The poetry Wordsworth has two fundamental features. These features are clearly outlined in his preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. The first and important feature is the use of common language , as Wordsworth says, “ the language really used by men.”

His poetry was treated differently by the contemporary readers and critics as the diction employed by Wordsworth in his poem resembles that of the rough, illiterate peasants and villagers whom Wordsworth admired a lot. Before understating the distinctive characteristics of Wordsworth poetry, one must consider the poetic conventions before Romanticism; the poetry of the 18 th century uses high dictionary words with complex syntax.

Looking at the poetry of Wordsworth from this angle, his poetry has uncomplicated syntax , direct phrasing, and little illusion . For example, in the poem Daffodils , this aspect of his poetry is very obvious. The poem has an uncomplicated syntax and easy diction that readers, instead of reading, start singing it.

Wordsworth poetry is preoccupied with emotions . This is the second most important characteristic of his poetry that he discussed in his preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. According to Wordsworth, poetry is “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and emotions, recollected in tranquility.” 

According to him, the job of a poet is to examine his own self to recollect the powerful feelings of his life. These recollections include inspirational thoughts and events in his life that have greatly influenced him. Once these emotions are recollected, he then reorganizes them. The recollection of emotions is the most observable feature of the poetry of Wordsworth. His poetry is a result of the ordinary but moving thought.

One of the best examples of his sentimental poetry is his sonnet, “ Composed upon Westminster Bridge.” In the sonnet, the narrator is an admirer of nature and looks out at the busy industrial city of London to watch for the arresting beauty.

The unique styles of Wordsworth poetry are noticeable in his two most important works: Lyrical Ballads and The prelude. He wrote these two works in collaboration with S. T. Coleridge. These two works characterize the early style of young Wordsworth and the more advanced style of old Wordsworth. The style of Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads is very emotional and contains natural scenes, whereas, in the epic The Prelude, his verses are composed of more ponderous and exhaustive thoughts on life and his relation to it.

His late poetry is also didactic, as he tried to instruct his readers. Though Keats’s style becomes a little complicated in his later poetry, it is this work that became the most influential works in the English Literature after the death of William Wordsworth. His poems, particularly The Prelude, have been quoted by various poets of the Victorian Era, including Tennyson. The opening verse of the epic poem The Prelude is the best example of his style. 

 Wordsworth style has been a debatable topic for many critics. To some critics, Wordsworth has two styles, as mentioned above, while some believed that he has more than two styles, whereas some say that he does not have any style at all.

Keats did not use any “ conceits” and “ inane phraseology ” in his poetry and devoted himself to free the poetry from such complications. Lytton Strachey says that the first poet who completely documented and intentionally accomplished the splendors of intense straightforwardness is William Wordsworth and this characteristic of his poetry that claims his fame. There is hardly any reader who cannot notice the beauty of his simplicity in his poetry. 

Though the style of Wordsworth is nobly plain, it also has some unique and unparalleled features. The subject of his poetry has profound sincerity and natural character , and Wordsworth himself experiences his subject profoundly. His poetry has elevated expression . For example, in the poem “Resolution and Independence,” he uses an elevated expression to catch the attention of his audience. 

Wordsworth would prefer to use an ascetic and unostentatious style in his poems. The power and completeness of this style require a more mature and considerate reader to appreciate. However, on many occasions, the simplicity of Wordsworth poetry declines to triviality. Though most of the time, the simplicity of Wordsworth poetry remains successful, some of his poetry contains plainness that has been called the bleat, the old, half-intelligent sheep. A strange inequality is created in the poetry of Wordsworth, which has been discussed by every critic.

His poetry lacks a sense of humor . This lack is responsible for the triviality in his poetry. The reason for the lack of humor is his blend of grandeur and immaturity in his poetic theory. Though he claims to use simple ordinary language, he also portrays coloring imagery in his poetry. 

Luckily the splendid imagination of William Wordsworth was repeatedly excessively influential for his principle, and he unintentionally overlooks it completely in his best works.

Works Of William Wordsworth

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William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, on April 7, 1770. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was eight—this experience shapes much of his later work. Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and, it is believed, where he made his first attempts at verse. While he was at Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s father died leaving him and his four siblings orphans. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and, before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe—an experience that influenced both his poetry and his political sensibilities. While touring Europe, Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. This experience, as well as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest and sympathy for the life, troubles, and speech of the “common man.” These issues proved to be of the utmost importance to Wordsworth’s work. Wordsworth’s earliest poetry was published in 1793 in the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches . While living in France, Wordsworth conceived a daughter, Caroline, out of wedlock; he left France, however, before she was born. In 1802, he returned to France with his sister on a four-week visit to meet Caroline. Later that year, he married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and they had five children together. In 1812, while living in Grasmere, two of their children—Catherine and John—died.

Equally important in the poetic life of Wordsworth was his 1795 meeting with the poet  Samuel Taylor Coleridge . It was with Coleridge that Wordsworth published the famous Lyrical Ballads  (J. & A. Arch) in 1798. While the poems themselves are some of the most influential in Western literature, it is the preface to the second edition that remains one of the most important testaments to a poet’s views on both his craft and his place in the world. In the preface Wordsworth writes on the need for “common speech” within poems and argues against the hierarchy of the period which valued epic poetry above the lyric.

Wordsworth’s most famous work, The Prelude (Edward Moxon, 1850), is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of English Romanticism . The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual life of the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously. Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, traveling, and continuing his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter, Dora, in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems.

William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850, leaving his wife, Mary, to publish The Prelude three months later.

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William Wordsworth

Table of content

William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England on April 7, 1770. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was eight—this experience shapes much of his later work. Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and, it is believed, he made his first attempts at verse. While he was at Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s father died leaving him and his four siblings orphans. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe, an experience that influenced both his poetry and his political sensibilities. While touring Europe, Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. This experience as well as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest and sympathy for the life, troubles, and speech of the “common man.” These issues proved to be of the utmost importance to Wordsworth’s work. Wordsworth’s earliest poetry was published in 1793 in the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. While living in France, Wordsworth conceived a daughter, Caroline, out of wedlock; he left France, however, before she was born. In 1802, he returned to France with his sister on a four-week visit to meet Caroline. Later that year, he married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and they had five children together. In 1812, while living in Grasmere, two of their children—Catherine and John—died.

Equally important in the poetic life of Wordsworth was his 1795 meeting with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was with Coleridge that Wordsworth published the famous Lyrical Ballads in 1798. While the poems themselves are some of the most influential in Western literature, it is the preface to the second edition that remains one of the most important testaments to a poet’s views on both his craft and his place in the world. In the preface Wordsworth writes on the need for “common speech” within poems and argues against the hierarchy of the period which valued epic poetry above the lyric.

Wordsworth ’s most famous work, The Prelude (1850), is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of English romanticism. The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual life of the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously. Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, travelling and continuing his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter Dora in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems. William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850, leaving his wife Mary to publish The Prelude three months later.

Essays by William Wordsworth

• Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Poems by William Wordsworth

• “Why art thou silent! Is thy love a plant”
• A Complaint
• A Poet! He Hath Put his Heart to School
• A Slumber did my Spirit Seal
• Character of the Happy Warrior
• Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
• Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont
• Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg
• I Travelled among Unknown Men
• I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
• Influence of Natural Objects in Calling Forth and Strengthening the Imagination in Boyhood and Early Youth
• Inside of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge
• It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free
• It is not to be Thought of
• Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798
• Lines Written in Early Spring
• London, 1802
• Most Sweet it is
• November, 1806
• Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room
• October, 1803
• Ode to Duty
• Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
• On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples
• On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic
• Resolution and Independence
• Scorn not the Sonnet
• September, 1819
• She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways
• She Was a Phantom of Delight
• Simon Lee: The Old Huntsman
• Sonnets from The River Duddon: After-Thought
• Surprised by Joy
• The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement
• The Green Linnet
• The Power of Armies is a Visible Thing
• The Reverie of Poor Susan
• The Simplon Pass
• The Solitary Reaper
• The Tables Turned
• The World Is Too Much With Us
• There was a Boy
• Three Years She Grew
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William Wordsworth Biography

Born: April 7, 1770 Cookermouth, Cumberland, England Died: April 23, 1850 Rydal Mount, Westmorland, England English poet

William Wordsworth was an early leader of romanticism (a literary movement that celebrated nature and concentrated on human emotions) in English poetry and ranks as one of the greatest lyric poets in the history of English literature.

His early years

William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cookermouth, Cumberland, England, the second child of an attorney. Unlike the other major English romantic poets, he enjoyed a happy childhood under the loving care of his mother and was very close to his sister Dorothy. As a child he wandered happily through the lovely natural scenery of Cumberland. In grammar school, Wordsworth showed a keen interest in poetry. He was fascinated by the epic poet John Milton (1608–1674).

From 1787 to 1790 Wordsworth attended St. John's College at Cambridge University. He always returned to his home and to nature during his summer vacations. Before graduating from Cambridge, he took a walking tour through France, Switzerland, and Italy in 1790. The Alps made an impression on him that he did not recognize until fourteen years later.

Stay in France

Wordsworth fell passionately in love with a French girl, Annette Vallon. She gave birth to their daughter in December 1792. However, Wordsworth had spent his limited funds and was forced to return home. The separation left him with a sense of guilt that deepened his poetic inspiration and resulted in an important theme in his work of abandoned women.

Publication of first poems

Wordsworth's first poems, Descriptive Sketches and An Evening Walk, were printed in 1793. He wrote several pieces over the next several years. The year 1797 marked the beginning of Wordsworth's long friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834). Together they published Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Wordsworth wanted to challenge "the gaudiness [unnecessarily flashy] and inane [foolish] phraseology [wording] of many modern writers." Most of his poems in this collection centered on the simple yet deeply human feelings of ordinary people, phrased in their own language. His views on this new kind of poetry were more fully described in the important "Preface" that he wrote for the second edition (1800).

"Tintern Abbey"

Wordsworth's most memorable contribution to this volume was "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," which he wrote just in time to include it. This poem is the first major piece to illustrate his original talent at its best. It skillfully combines matter-of-factness in natural description with a genuinely mystical (magical) sense of infinity, joining self-exploration to philosophical speculation (questioning). The poem closes on a subdued but confident reassertion of nature's healing power, even though mystical insight may be obtained from the poet.

In its successful blending of inner and outer experience, of sense perception, feeling, and thought, "Tintern Abbey" is a poem in which the writer becomes a symbol of mankind. The poem leads to imaginative thoughts about man and the universe. This cosmic outlook rooted in the self is a central feature of romanticism. Wordsworth's poetry is undoubtedly the most impressive example of this view in English literature.

Poems of the middle period

Wordsworth, even while writing his contributions to the Lyrical Ballads, had been feeling his way toward more ambitious schemes. He had embarked on a long poem in unrhymed verse, "The Ruined Cottage," later referred to as "The Peddlar." It was intended to form part of a vast philosophical poem with the title "The Recluse, or Views of Man, Nature and Society." This grand project never materialized as originally planned.

Abstract, impersonal speculation was not comfortable for Wordsworth. He could handle experiences in the philosophical-lyrical manner only if they were closely related to himself and could arouse his creative feelings and imagination. During the winter months he spent in Germany, he started work on his magnum opus (greatest work), The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind. It was published after his death.

However, such a large achievement was still beyond Wordsworth's scope (area of capabilities) at this time. It was back to the shorter poetic forms that he turned during the most productive season of his long literary life, the spring of 1802. The output of these fertile (creative) months mostly came from his earlier inspirations: nature and the common people. During this time he wrote "To a Butterfly," "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," "To the Cuckoo," "The Rainbow," and other poems.

Changes in philosophy

The crucial event of this period was Wordsworth's loss of the sense of mystical oneness, which had sustained (lasted throughout) his highest imaginative flights. Indeed, a mood of despondency (depression) descended over Wordsworth, who was then thirty-two years old.

In the summer of 1802 Wordsworth spent a few weeks in Calais, France, with his sister Dorothy. Wordsworth's renewed contact with France only confirmed his disillusionment (disappointment) with the French Revolution and its aftermath.

During this period Wordsworth had become increasingly concerned with Coleridge, who by now was almost totally dependent upon opium (a highly addictive drug) for relief from his physical sufferings. Both friends came to believe that the realities of life were in stark contradiction (disagreement) to the visionary expectations of their youth. Wordsworth characteristically sought to redefine his own identity in ways that would allow him a measure of meaning. The new turn his life took in 1802 resulted in an inner change that set the new course his poetry followed from then on.

Poems about England and Scotland began pouring forth from Wordsworth's pen, while France and Napoleon (1769–1821) soon became Wordsworth's favorite symbols of cruelty and oppression. His nationalistic (intense pride in one's own country) inspiration led him to produce the two "Memorials of a Tour in Scotland" (1803, 1814) and the group entitled "Poems Dedicated to National Independence and Liberty."

Poems of 1802

The best poems of 1802, however, deal with a deeper level of inner change. In Wordsworth's poem "Intimations of Immortality" (March–April), he plainly recognized that "The things which I have seen I now can see no more"; yet he emphasized that although the "visionary gleam" had fled, the memory remained, and although the "celestial light" had vanished, the "common sight" of "meadow, grove and stream" was still a potent (strong) source of delight and solace (comfort).

Thus Wordsworth shed his earlier tendency to idealize nature and turned to a more sedate (calm) doctrine (set of beliefs) of orthodox Christianity. Younger poets and critics soon blamed him for this "recantation" (renouncing), which they equated with his change of mind about the French Revolution. His Ecclesiastical Sonnets (1822) are clear evidence of the way in which love of freedom, nature, and the Church came to coincide (come together at the same time) in his mind.

The Prelude

Nevertheless, it was the direction suggested in "Intimations of Immortality" that, in the view of later criticism, enabled Wordsworth to produce perhaps the most outstanding achievement of English romanticism: The Prelude. He worked on it, on and off, for several years and completed the first version in May 1805. The Prelude can claim to be the only true romantic epic (long, often heroic work) because it deals in narrative terms with the spiritual growth of the only true romantic hero, the poet. The inward odyssey (journey) of the poet was described not for its own sake but as a sample and as an adequate image of man at his most sensitive.

Wordsworth shared the general romantic notion that personal experience is the only way to gain living knowledge. The purpose of The Prelude was to recapture and interpret, with detailed thoroughness, the whole range of experiences that had contributed to the shaping of his own mind. Wordsworth refrained from publishing the poem in his lifetime, revising it continuously. Most important and, perhaps, most to be regretted, the poet also tried to give a more orthodox tinge to his early mystical faith in nature.

Later years

Wordsworth's estrangement (growing apart) from Coleridge in 1810 deprived him of a powerful incentive to imaginative and intellectual alertness. Wordsworth's appointment to a government position in 1813 relieved him of financial care.

Wordsworth's undiminished love for nature made him view the emergent (just appearing) industrial society with undisguised reserve. He opposed the Reform Bill of 1832, which, in his view, merely transferred political power from the land owners to the manufacturing class, but he never stopped pleading in favor of the victims of the factory system.

In 1843 Wordsworth was appointed poet laureate (official poet of a country). He died on April 23, 1850.

For More Information

Davies, Hunter. William Wordsworth: A Biography. New York: Atheneum, 1980.

Gill, Stephen. William Wordsworth: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Johnston, Kenneth R. The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Negrotta, Rosanna. William Wordsworth: A Biography with Selected Poems. London: Brockhampton, 1999.

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William Wordsworth: Biography

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The Poet's birthplace and childhood home — the Wordsworth House, Cockermouth

William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, to John and Anne (Cookson) Wordsworth, the second of their five children. His father was law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale, and the family was fairly well off. After his mother's death in 1778 he was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, near Windermere; in 1787 he went up to St. John's College, Cambridge . He enjoyed hiking: during the "long" (i.e., summer) vacation of 1788 he tramped around Cumberland county; two years later went on a walking tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany; and in 1791, after graduation, trekked through Wales.

His enthusiasm for the French Revolution took him to France again in 1791, where he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who bore him an illegitimate daughter, Caroline, in 1792. Having run out of money, Wordsworth returned to England the following year, and the Anglo-French war, following the Reign of Terror, prevented his return for nine years.

In 1794 he was reunited with his sister Dorothy, who became his companion, close friend, moral support, and housekeeper until her physical and mental decline in the 1830s. The next year he met Coleridge , and the three of them grew very close, the two men meeting daily in 1797-98 to talk about poetry and to plan Lyrical Ballads , which came out in 1798. The three friends travelled to Germany that fall, a trip that produced intellectual stimulation for Coleridge and homesickness for Wordsworth. After their return, William and Dorothy settled in his beloved Lake district , near Grasmere.

The Peace of Amiens in 1802 allowed Wordsworth and his sister to visit France again to see Annette and Caroline. They arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement, and a few months later, after receiving an inheritance owed by Lord Lonsdale since John Wordsworth's death in 1783, William married Mary Hutchinson. By 1810 they had five children, but their happiness was tempered by the loss at sea of William's brother John (1805), the alienation from Coleridge in 1810, and the death of two children in 1812. In 1813 Wordsworth received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the £400 per year which went with this post made him financially secure. The whole family, which included Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, between Grasmere and Rydal Water).

Wordsworth's literary career began with Descriptive Sketches (1793) and reached an early climax before the turn of the century, with Lyrical Ballads . His powers peaked with Poems in Two Volumes (1807), and his reputation continued to grow; even his harshest reviewers recognized his popularity and the originality.

The important later works were well under way. His success with shorter forms made him the more eager to succeed with longer, specifically with a long, three-part "philosophical poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, . . having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement." The 17,000 lines which were eventually published made up only a part of this mammoth project. The second section, The Excursion , was completed (pub. 1814), as was the first book of the first part, The Recluse . During his lifetime he refused to print The Prelude , which he had completed by 1805, because he thought it was unprecedented for a poet to talk as much about himself — unless he could put it in its proper setting, which was as an introduction to the complete three-part Recluse .

William and Mary Wordsworth's Grave

Inspiration gradually failed him for this project, and he spent much of his later life revising The Prelude . Critics quarrel about which version is better, the 1805 or the 1850, but agree that in either case it is the most successful blank verse epic since Paradise Lost .

Finally fully reconciled to Coleridge, the two of them toured the Rhineland in 1828. Durham University granted him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838, and Oxford conferred the same honor the next year. When Robert Southey died in 1843, Wordsworth was named Poet Laureate. He died in 1850, and his wife published the much-revised Prelude that summer.

Created 1988; incorporated in the Victorian Web July 2000

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.

Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

The second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson, William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland—part of the scenic region in northwest England, the Lake District. His sister, the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, to whom he was close all his life, was born the following year, and the two were baptised together. They had three other siblings: Richard, the eldest, who became a lawyer; John, born after Dorothy, who went to sea and died in 1805 when the ship of which he was Master, the Earl of Abergavenny, was wrecked off the south coast of England; and Christopher, the youngest, who entered the Church and rose to be Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Their father was a legal representative of James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale and, through his connections, lived in a large mansion in the small town. Wordsworth, as with his siblings, had little involvement with their father, and they would be distant from him until his death in 1783.

Wordsworth's father, although rarely present, did teach him poetry, including that of Milton, Shakespeare and Spenser, in addition to allowing his son to rely on his own father's library. Along with spending time reading in Cockermouth, Wordsworth would also stay at his mother's parents house in Penrith, Cumberland. At Penrith, Wordsworth was exposed to the moors. Wordsworth could not get along with his grandparents and his uncle, and his hostile interactions with them distressed him to the point of contemplating suicide.

After the death of their mother, in 1778, John Wordsworth sent William to Hawkshead Grammar School in Lancashire and Dorothy to live with relatives in Yorkshire; she and William would not meet again for another nine years. Although Hawkshead was Wordsworth's first serious experience with education, he had been taught to read by his mother and had attended a tiny school of low quality in Cockermouth. After the Cockermouth school, he was sent to a school in Penrith for the children of upper-class families and taught by Ann Birkett, a woman who insisted on instilling in her students traditions that included pursuing both scholarly and local activities, especially the festivals around Easter, May Day, and Shrove Tuesday. Wordsworth was taught both the Bible and the Spectator, but little else. It was at the school that Wordsworth was to meet the Hutchinsons, including Mary, who would be his future wife.

Wordsworth made his debut as a writer in 1787 when he published a sonnet in The European Magazine. That same year he began attending St John's College, Cambridge, and received his B.A. degree in 1791. He returned to Hawkshead for his first two summer holidays, and often spent later holidays on walking tours, visiting places famous for the beauty of their landscape. In 1790, he took a walking tour of Europe, during which he toured the Alps extensively, and visited nearby areas of France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Relationship with Annette Vallon

In November 1791, Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France and became enthralled with the Republican movement. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who in 1792 gave birth to their child, Caroline. Because of lack of money and Britain's tensions with France, he returned alone to England the next year. The circumstances of his return and his subsequent behaviour raise doubts as to his declared wish to marry Annette, but he supported her and his daughter as best he could in later life. The Reign of Terror estranged him from the Republican movement, and war between France and Britain prevented him from seeing Annette and Caroline again for several years. There are strong suggestions that Wordsworth may have been depressed and emotionally unsettled in the mid-1790s.

With the Peace of Amiens again allowing travel to France, in 1802 Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, visited Annette and Caroline in Calais. The purpose of the visit was to pave the way for his forthcoming marriage to Mary Hutchinson, and a mutually agreeable settlement was reached regarding Wordsworth's obligations. Afterwards he wrote the poem "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free," recalling his seaside walk with his daughter, whom he had not seen for ten years. At the conception of this poem, he had never seen his daughter before. The occurring lines reveal his deep love for both child and mother.

First publication and Lyrical Ballads

In his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads", which is called the "manifesto" of English Romantic criticism, Wordsworth calls his poems "experimental." The year 1793 saw Wordsworth's first published poetry with the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. He received a legacy of £900 from Raisley Calvert in 1795 so that he could pursue writing poetry. That year, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship. In 1797, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy moved to Alfoxton House, Somerset, just a few miles away from Coleridge's home in Nether Stowey. Together, Wordsworth and Coleridge (with insights from Dorothy) produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), an important work in the English Romantic movement. The volume gave neither Wordsworth's nor Coleridge's name as author. One of Wordsworth's most famous poems, "Tintern Abbey", was published in the work, along with Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". The second edition, published in 1800, had only Wordsworth listed as the author, and included a preface to the poems, which was augmented significantly in the 1802 edition. This Preface to Lyrical Ballads is considered a central work of Romantic literary theory. In it, Wordsworth discusses what he sees as the elements of a new type of poetry, one based on the "real language of men" and which avoids the poetic diction of much 18th-century poetry. Here, Wordsworth gives his famous definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in tranquility: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." A fourth and final edition of Lyrical Ballads was published in 1805.

The Borderers

From 1795 to 1797, he wrote his only play, The Borderers, a verse tragedy set during the reign of King Henry III of England when Englishmen of the north country were in conflict with Scottish rovers. Wordsworth attempted to get the play staged in November 1797, but it was rejected by Thomas Harris, theatre manager of Covent Garden, who proclaimed it "impossible that the play should succeed in the representation". The rebuff was not received lightly by Wordsworth, and the play was not published until 1842, after substantial revision.

Germany and move to the Lake District

Wordsworth, Dorothy and Coleridge travelled to Germany in the autumn of 1798. While Coleridge was intellectually stimulated by the trip, its main effect on Wordsworth was to produce homesickness. During the harsh winter of 1798–99, Wordsworth lived with Dorothy in Goslar, and, despite extreme stress and loneliness, he began work on an autobiographical piece later titled The Prelude. He wrote a number of famous poems, including "The Lucy poems". He and his sister moved back to England, now to Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District, and this time with fellow poet Robert Southey nearby. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey came to be known as the "Lake Poets". Through this period, many of his poems revolve around themes of death, endurance, separation and grief.

Marriage and children

In 1802, after Wordsworth's return from his trip to France with Dorothy to visit Annette and Caroline, Lowther's heir, William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, paid the ₤4, debt owed to Wordsworth's father incurred through Lowther's failure to pay his aide. Later that year, on October 4, Wordsworth married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy continued to live with the couple and grew close to Mary. The following year, Mary gave birth to the first of five children, three of whom predeceased William and Mary:

John Wordsworth (18 June 1803 – 1875). Dora Wordsworth (16 August 1804 – 9 July 1847). Thomas Wordsworth (15 June 1806 – 1 December 1812). Catherine Wordsworth (6 September 1808 – 4 June 1812). William "Willy" Wordsworth (12 May 1810 – 1883).

Autobiographical work and Poems in Two Volumes

Wordsworth had for years been making plans to write a long philosophical poem in three parts, which he intended to call The Recluse. He had in 1798–99 started an autobiographical poem, which he never named but called the "poem to Coleridge", which would serve as an appendix to The Recluse. In 1804, he began expanding this autobiographical work, having decided to make it a prologue rather than an appendix to the larger work he planned. By 1805, he had completed it, but refused to publish such a personal work until he had completed the whole of The Recluse. The death of his brother, John, in 1805 affected him strongly.

The source of Wordsworth's philosophical allegiances as articulated in The Prelude and in such shorter works as "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey" has been the source of much critical debate. While it had long been supposed that Wordsworth relied chiefly on Coleridge for philosophical guidance, more recent scholarship has suggested that Wordsworth's ideas may have been formed years before he and Coleridge became friends in the mid 1790s. While in Revolutionary Paris in 1792, the 22-year-old Wordsworth made the acquaintance of the mysterious traveller John "Walking" Stewart (1747–1822), who was nearing the end of a thirty-years' peregrination from Madras, India, through Persia and Arabia, across Africa and all of Europe, and up through the fledgling United States. By the time of their association, Stewart had published an ambitious work of original materialist philosophy entitled The Apocalypse of Nature (London, 1791), to which many of Wordsworth's philosophical sentiments are likely indebted.

In 1807, his Poems in Two Volumes were published, including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood". Up to this point Wordsworth was known publicly only for Lyrical Ballads, and he hoped this collection would cement his reputation. Its reception was lukewarm, however. For a time (starting in 1810), Wordsworth and Coleridge were estranged over the latter's opium addiction. Two of his children, Thomas and Catherine, died in 1812. The following year, he received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the £400 per year income from the post made him financially secure. His family, including Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, Ambleside (between Grasmere and Rydal Water) in 1813, where he spent the rest of his life.

The Prospectus

In 1814 he published The Excursion as the second part of the three-part The Recluse. He had not completed the first and third parts, and never would. He did, however, write a poetic Prospectus to "The Recluse" in which he lays out the structure and intent of the poem. The Prospectus contains some of Wordsworth's most famous lines on the relation between the human mind and nature:

My voice proclaims

How exquisitely the individual Mind

(And the progressive powers perhaps no less

Of the whole species) to the external World

Is fitted:—and how exquisitely, too,

Theme this but little heard of among Men,

The external World is fitted to the Mind.

Some modern critics[who?] recognise a decline in his works beginning around the mid-1810s. But this decline was perhaps more a change in his lifestyle and beliefs, since most of the issues that characterise his early poetry (loss, death, endurance, separation and abandonment) were resolved in his writings. But, by 1820, he enjoyed the success accompanying a reversal in the contemporary critical opinion of his earlier works. Following the death of his friend the painter William Green in 1823, Wordsworth mended relations with Coleridge. The two were fully reconciled by 1828, when they toured the Rhineland together. Dorothy suffered from a severe illness in 1829 that rendered her an invalid for the remainder of her life. In 1835, Wordsworth gave Annette and Caroline the money they needed for support.

The Poet Laureate and other honours

Wordsworth received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838 from Durham University, and the same honour from Oxford University the next year. In 1842 the government awarded him a civil list pension amounting to £300 a year. With the death in 1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him "you shall have nothing required of you" (he became the only laureate to write no official poetry). When his daughter, Dora, died in 1847, his production of poetry came to a standstill.

William Wordsworth died by re-aggravating a case of pleurisy on 23 April 1850, and was buried at St. Oswald's church in Grasmere. His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical "poem to Coleridge" as The Prelude several months after his death. Though this failed to arouse great interest in 1850, it has since come to be recognised as his masterpiece.

Major works

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)

"Simon Lee" "We are Seven" "Lines Written in Early Spring" "Expostulation and Reply" "The Tables Turned" "The Thorn" "Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800)

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads "Strange fits of passion have I known"[14] "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways"[14] "Three years she grew"[14] "A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal"[14] "I travelled among unknown men"[14] "Lucy Gray" "The Two April Mornings" "Nutting" "The Ruined Cottage" "Michael" "The Kitten At Play"

Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)

"Resolution and Independence" "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Also known as "Daffodils" "My Heart Leaps Up" "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" "Ode to Duty" "The Solitary Reaper" "Elegiac Stanzas" "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" "London, 1802" "The World Is Too Much with Us"

Guide to the Lakes (1810) The Excursion (1814) Laodamia (1815, 1845) The Prelude (1850)

Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth

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William Wordsworth Biography and Works | Themes and Literary Awards

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William Wordsworth Biography and Works

William Wordsworth Biography and Works , William Wordsworth Biography and Works | Themes and Literary Awards William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an English Romantic poet who helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, a collection of poems he co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

He is considered one of the most influential and celebrated poets in the English language, with a body of work that spans over five decades and includes some of the most beloved and widely anthologized poems in the English canon.

Early Life and Education

William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, a small town in the Lake District region of northwestern England. He was the second of five children born to John Wordsworth, an attorney, and his wife, Ann Cookson. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was only eight years old, and he was sent to live with his mother’s family in Penrith, a town about twenty miles from Cockermouth. Wordsworth’s father died when he was thirteen, and he was then sent to live with an uncle in Hawkshead, a small village in the Lake District. William Wordsworth Biography and Works

William Wordsworth Biography and Works:- Wordsworth attended Cambridge University, where he studied classics and wrote poetry. He also traveled to France, where he became fluent in French and was exposed to the revolutionary ideas of the French Revolution. Wordsworth’s experiences in France would have a profound impact on his political and philosophical beliefs and on his poetry. 

Poetic Career

Wordsworth’s early poetry was heavily influenced by the neoclassical style of the eighteenth century, but he gradually began to develop a more personal and expressive style that would become the hallmark of Romantic poetry. William Wordsworth Biography and Works, In 1793, Wordsworth published his first collection of poems, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches, which were well-received by critics but did not receive much attention from the public.

Also Read:- William Shakespeare Biography and Works

William Wordsworth Biography and Works:- In 1795, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he would form a close friendship and a productive literary partnership. The two poets collaborated on Lyrical Ballads, which was published in 1798 and is now considered a seminal work of English Romanticism. The collection included some of Wordsworth’s most famous poems, including “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” “We Are Seven,” and “The Tables Turned.” The poems in Lyrical Ballads broke with the conventions of eighteenth-century poetry by using ordinary language, focusing on ordinary people and everyday experiences, and exploring the emotions and inner lives of the speakers.

Mature Career

Wordsworth continued to write poetry throughout his life, and his later work is often characterized by a more reflective and philosophical tone. In 1807, he published his most ambitious work, The Prelude, an autobiographical poem that he continued to revise and expand throughout his life. The poem explores the development of Wordsworth’s consciousness and his poetic sensibility, from his childhood experiences in the Lake District to his travels in France and his encounters with the natural world.

William Wordsworth Biography and Works:- In addition to his poetry, Wordsworth was also a prolific essayist and prose writer. He wrote about a wide range of topics, including politics, nature, education, and literary criticism. His essay “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” which he wrote in 1800, is considered a manifesto of English Romanticism and a key text in the history of literary criticism.William Wordsworth Biography and Works

Late Life and Legacy

In his later years, Wordsworth became increasingly involved in politics and social reform. He served as a local magistrate and was active in the campaign for parliamentary reform. He also continued to write poetry, and his later work often reflected his political and social concerns. William Wordsworth Biography and Works

William Wordsworth Works

Please note that some of William Wordsworth’s works were published in various years, and their themes often overlap or encompass multiple aspects. The table provides a general overview of the major works and their respective publication years and themes. William Wordsworth Biography and Works

#1. Lyrical Ballads (1798)

“Lyrical Ballads,” co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is a groundbreaking collection of poems that challenged the conventions of 18th-century poetry. It includes Wordsworth’s famous poems such as:

• “Tintern Abbey” – Reflects on the transformative power of nature and the lasting impact of childhood memories.
• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Coleridge) – A narrative poem exploring guilt, redemption, and the supernatural.

#2. “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (1798)

This introspective poem reflects on the restorative influence of nature on the human spirit. Wordsworth contemplates his return to Tintern Abbey after a five-year absence, marveling at the memories and sensations it evokes.

#3. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807)

Also known as “Daffodils,” this poem celebrates the beauty of nature and the transformative effect it has on the poet’s mood. It describes a vivid encounter with a field of daffodils, emphasizing the lasting impact of nature’s beauty on the human imagination.

#4. “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (1807)

In this reflective ode, Wordsworth explores the loss of innocence and the fading connection with the divine as one grows older. He contemplates the significance of childhood memories and the glimpses of immortality they offer.

#5. “The Prelude” (1850)

“The Prelude” is an autobiographical long poem that reflects on Wordsworth’s own experiences, emotions, and philosophical beliefs. It explores themes of memory, growth, and the development of the poet’s mind, tracing his journey from childhood to adulthood.

#6. “The Excursion” (1814)

A philosophical poem in blank verse, “The Excursion” delves into themes of nature, spirituality, and the role of the imagination in shaping human existence. It follows a group of characters engaged in a poetic dialogue about life’s deeper meanings.

William Wordsworth’s works demonstrate his deep connection to nature, his belief in the power of the individual’s experiences, and his ability to evoke profound emotions through poetic language. His poetry continues to be celebrated for its timeless relevance, vivid imagery, and the enduring beauty of his words.

#7. “The Prelude” (1850)

William Wordsworth Biography and Works “The Prelude” is an autobiographical long poem that reflects on Wordsworth’s own experiences, emotions, and philosophical beliefs. It explores themes of memory, growth, and the development of the poet’s mind, tracing his journey from childhood to adulthood. The poem is divided into several books, each focusing on different stages of Wordsworth’s life and the significant events that shaped him as a poet.

#8. “Sonnet Series”

Wordsworth wrote an extensive series of sonnets that delve into various themes, including nature, love, loss, and the passage of time. Some of the notable sonnets include “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” “ London, 1802 ,” and “The World is Too Much with Us.” William Wordsworth Biography and Works | Themes and Literary Awards

#9. “The Lucy Poems”

“The Lucy Poems” is a collection of five lyrical poems dedicated to an enigmatic figure named Lucy. These poems, including “Strange fits of passion have I known” and “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” explore themes of love, beauty, mortality, and the fleeting nature of life.

#10. “The Solitary Reaper”

“The Solitary Reaper” is a poem that captures the sublime beauty of a Scottish girl singing in a field. Wordsworth immerses himself in the enchanting scene, describing the impact of her melodic voice and reflecting on the power of music to evoke deep emotions and transcend language barriers.

#11. “Elegiac Stanzas”

“Elegiac Stanzas” is a poignant elegy composed by Wordsworth in memory of his close friend, Charles Gough. The poem reflects on the nature of grief, the fleeting nature of life, and the significance of human connections in the face of mortality.

#12. “Ode to Duty”

In “Ode to Duty,” Wordsworth explores the concept of duty as a guiding force in life. He reflects on the importance of moral responsibility and the fulfillment that comes from fulfilling one’s obligations. The poem emphasizes the virtues of steadfastness, integrity, and self-discipline in navigating the complexities of existence.

#13. “The Daffodils” (1804)

“The Daffodils,” also known as “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” is one of Wordsworth’s most beloved and widely recognized poems. It vividly describes the poet’s encounter with a field of daffodils, evoking a sense of joy, wonder, and the profound impact of nature’s beauty on the human spirit.

#14. “To a Butterfly”

“To a Butterfly” is a short and lyrical poem in which Wordsworth addresses a butterfly, marveling at its ephemeral beauty and delicate existence. The poem reflects on the fleeting nature of life and the interconnectedness of all living beings.

#15. “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (1807)

In this depth philosophical ode, Wordsworth contemplates the loss of the spiritual connection and sense of wonder experienced in childhood. He explores the transient nature of life and grapples with the idea of the soul’s pre-existence and its ultimate reunion with a divine realm. William Wordsworth Biography and Works | Themes and Literary Awards

William Wordsworth’s works encompass a wide range of themes, from the awe-inspiring beauty of nature to the complexities of human emotions and the philosophical musings on life and mortality. His poetry captures the essence of the Romantic era and continues to captivate readers with its profound insights, lyrical language, and timeless relevance.

Themes and Style

Themes: William Wordsworth’s poetry is characterized by a deep appreciation of nature, an emphasis on the beauty of the simple and ordinary, and a celebration of the power of the human imagination. His poetry often explores the relationship between the individual and nature, the connection between the past and the present, and the role of memory and imagination in shaping our experiences.

Style: Wordsworth’s poetry is characterized by a simple, direct language that is intended to evoke a sense of immediacy and authenticity. He believed that poetry should be written in the language of everyday speech, rather than in the artificial language of traditional poetry. His poetry is also characterized by a careful attention to the details of the natural world, and by an emphasis on the sensory experience of the world.

William Wordsworth Biography and Works William Wordsworth was a best figure in English Romantic poetry and one of the most influential poet in the English language. His poetry celebrated the beauty and power of nature, explored the relationship between the individual and the natural world, and celebrated the imaginative powers of the human mind.

His simple and direct style, William Wordsworth Biography and Works | Themes and Literary Awards , use of the lyric form, and emphasis on the subjective experience of the poet have influenced generations of poets who have followed in his footsteps. Wordsworth’s legacy continues to inspire readers and writers alike, and his poetry remains an enduring testament to the power of the human imagination and the beauty of the natural world.

Q: Who was William Wordsworth?

A: William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a major English Romantic poet, known for his poems that celebrated nature, imagination, and the human spirit. He was also a key figure in the English Romantic movement, along with poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Q: What are some of William Wordsworth’s most famous poems?

A: Some of Wordsworth’s most famous poems include “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (also known as “Daffodils”), “Tintern Abbey,” “The Prelude,” “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” and “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.”

Q: What was William Wordsworth’s writing style?

A: Wordsworth’s writing style was characterized by simple, direct language that emphasized the power of nature, the imagination, and the subjective experience of the poet. He believed that poetry should be written in the language of everyday speech, rather than in the artificial language of traditionl poetry. William Wordsworth Biography and Works | Themes and Literary Awards He also used the lyric form, which is a short, musical poem that expresses the poet’s personal feelings and emotions.

Q: What is the significance of nature in William Wordsworth’s poetry?

A: Nature was a central theme in Wordsworth’s poetry, and he believed that it had the power to heal, inspire, and reveal the divine. He often used nature as a metaphor for human emotions and experiences, and celebrated the beauty and power of the natural world in his poetry.

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Radical Wordsworth, Well-Kept Secrets, William Wordsworth review – lives of the poet

Republican, eco-warrior young Wordsworth v grand older poet – 250 after his birth, do we still have to take sides?

J ames Boswell started his biography of Dr Johnson on an anxious note: “To write the Life of him who excelled all mankind in writing the lives of others,” he confessed, “may be reckoned in me a presumptuous task.” How presumptuous, then, must the biographer of William Wordsworth feel? Not only is he one of the greatest of all English poets, but in The Prelude , largely unpublished until after his death, he excelled all mankind in writing the history of his own life – or rather, what he called “the growth of a poet’s mind”. No biographer could hope to compete with the sheer audacity and originality of Wordsworth’s 14-book blank verse account of what had made him a writer and a man. But as these three studies make plain, there is more than one way to tell the story of a life.

Although his verse autobiography tracks the sources of a poet’s character and imagination, in real life its author tried just as strenuously to keep himself hidden from view. Wordsworth thought one of the best ways to put off would-be biographers was to claim that virtually nothing had ever happened to him. Now we know differently. The “well-kept secrets” to which Andrew Wordsworth (a descendant) alludes in his title are, first, the poet’s “true feelings towards his sister”, and second, “the existence of his illegitimate daughter”. The latter might justly be described as a secret, since knowledge of Caroline Wordsworth’s birth in revolutionary France did not become public until seven decades after Wordsworth had died. It is also true that he enjoyed an intensely and unusually loving, creative relationship with his sister Dorothy. But this can scarcely be said to constitute a “secret”; Wordsworth doesn’t appear to have felt burdened by his feelings towards her, nor did he try to conceal them. Andrew Wordsworth stops short of suggesting, as others have done, that the connection may have been incestuous. Rather, he sees in the five celebrated “Lucy” poems – a series of works concerning a young girl who has died, composed between 1798 and 1802 – coded references both to Caroline and Dorothy, expressing the author’s fears for the loss of one or both of them but also in some sense steeling himself to bear it.

One of the many enjoyments of Stephen Gill’s William Wordsworth: A Life is the quiet pride it communicates in a job well done. Wordsworth emerges from this comprehensive and absorbing study as a man whose sense of purpose and duty steadily grew from youth to old age. That sense had its origins in the early loss of his parents on the one hand, and in his poetic vocation on the other. The orphaned Wordsworth did not see his sister again until they were both grown up. Once reunited, they embarked on a remarkable experiment in domesticity and writing, one to which both siblings, their friends, and (later) Wordsworth’s wife, Mary, were devoted. Gill carefully draws out the rewards and the costs of what it meant for other people to commit their lives to an often testy, sensitive man whose needs dominated the household. He also rightly pauses on several occasions to remind us that, while biographies impose a shape and certainty on the lives of their illustrious subjects, those subjects could not themselves have known how things would turn out. It took a long time indeed for Wordsworth’s greatness to be recognised. For much of his long life (he died aged 80) he was either poor, or vilified by critics, or both.

First published in 1989, Gill’s biography now appears in a second edition to mark the 250 th anniversary of the poet’s birth. The new text includes ampler consideration of Wordsworth’s wife and sister, and an updated frame of critical references. But the book is essentially the same judicious, substantial account that it was 31 years ago. Even if it hasn’t changed much, this biography is centrally concerned with the value of change, as weighed against the merits of consistency. Like the poems it considers, William Wordsworth: A Life is constantly and subtly attentive to first and second thoughts. It cherishes and brings into sharp focus the work of revision: Wordsworth found the temptation to rewrite himself irresistible. His inability to leave his own works alone was evidence of his strongest instinct “to search for the continuity between past and present selves, to demonstrate an essential wholeness of being”.

Readers have always been divided on the merits and wisdom of such “tinkering”, as the author called it. But the general consensus on Wordsworth’s career has been that the radical young man is superior to the reactionary old codger; that the works of his first decade as a writer outweigh anything he composed thereafter. When Jonathan Bate reviewed the first edition of Gill’s biography in 1989, he praised the author’s unusual willingness to attend to the latter part of its subject’s life. “Instead of the poet’s declining into the vale of years, writing worse and worse poetry,” Bate then wrote, “we are presented with a man who is an increasingly powerful force in national culture and who continually revises his work with deliberate purpose, if mixed effect”.

Gill’s readiness to find interest and value in Wordsworth’s middle and old age is indeed one of the most rewarding aspects of his biography. He gives a sense of clarity and roundedness to the whole career, and explains that Wordsworth himself did not recognise different phases of his own writing life as separable from one another. Nor did he view his own poems as “discrete objects” belonging to a single moment: early, middle, or late. He did not think of himself as a man who had changed – this charge was the most serious of those brought against him by a younger generation of poets, who saw Wordsworth as reneging on his early revolutionary principles in order to retire into rural seclusion and a steady job – but as a man whose commitments had remained the same.

Bate’s professed view of 31 years ago, that Gill’s handling of later Wordsworth was one of the most valuable things about his work has not endured. Not, at least, as far as his own opinions are concerned. In Radical Wordsworth , Bate champions what he himself once dismissed as the worn-out view that “early equals good and late equals bad”.

Having announced at the outset that “the long life of Wordsworth tails off into monotony”, Bate encourages us to dismiss the poet’s maturity and old age as dull and forgettable. He also argues that “too often, biographies of Wordsworth have been depressed by trivial occupations and the round of ordinary intercourse. These are not the things that inspire great poetry.” On the contrary, it was Wordsworth’s most radical claim that apparently trivial things and people, the rhythms of ordinary life, were the stuff of true poetry. But for Bate, the Wordsworth who matters is the republican and the polemicist who attacked hereditary monarchy, argued for universal suffrage, and held his own government and legal system to account. His Wordsworth is an eco-warrior, the prophet of “a carbon-warmed atmosphere”.

One problem with this version of events is that, as Gill points out, most evidence of Wordsworth’s early, fiery convictions survives in the form of writings he chose not to publish himself. He was never sufficiently reckless to commit himself to the career of a political journalist. Considered in the light of his earliest experiences, such caution is hardly surprising. Wordsworth’s childhood was marked and shaped by a devastating loss of security. He devoted his adulthood to imposing a sense of order on his surroundings and coherence on his past, drawing strength and fortitude from domestic routine and shoring up a sense of his own identity through returning to and recasting his early experiences. Many readers may continue to rate his first thoughts over his second ones, but Wordsworth was constitutionally inclined to disagree: “My first expressions I often find detestable,” he wrote in a letter of 1814; “and it is frequently true of second words as of second thoughts, that they are the best.”

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The Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth

Richard Gravil is author of Romantic Dialogues: Anglo-American Continuities 1776–1862 (2000) and of two holistic studies of Wordsworth, Wordsworth's Bardic Vocation, 1787–1842 (2003) and Wordsworth's Variety (forthcoming). He was the founding co-editor, with Chris Gair, of Symbiosis: a Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations. As founder and commissioning editor of Humanities-Ebooks, LLP, he is responsible for digitizing the Owen and Smyser Prose Works of William Wordsworth (2008/2009). On behalf of the Wordsworth Conference Foundation, of which he is also a Trustee, he organizes the Wordsworth Summer Conference and the Wordsworth Winter School. His editorial work includes Coleridge's Imagination (1985 and 2007) with Nicholas Roe and Lucy Newlyn; The Coleridge Connection (1990), with Molly Lefebure; Master Narratives (2001) and The Republic of Poetry: Transatlantic Continuities from Bradstreet to Plath (a special issue of Symbiosis, 2003).

Daniel Robinson is Professor of English at Widener University. He co-edited A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic-Era Revival, 1750–1850 (1999), with Paula Feldman, and Lyrical Ballads and Related Writings (2001) with William Richey. He is the editor of Poems, The Works of Mary Robinson (2 vols., 2009) and author of Myself and Some Other Being: Wordsworth and the Life Writing (2014), William Wordsworth’s Poetry: A Reader’s Guide (2010) and The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame (2011). His work has appeared in The Wordsworth Circle, Studies in Romanticism, European Romantic Review, Grasmere 2011, and Grasmere 2013.

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The Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth deploys its forty-eight essays, by an international team of scholar-critics, to present a stimulating account of Wordsworth’s life and achievement and to map new directions in criticism. Nineteen essays on the exceptional variety of his poetry explore systematically the highlights of a long career, giving special prominence to the lyric Wordsworth of Lyrical Ballads and the Poems, in Two Volumes, and the blank verse poet of ‘The Recluse’. Most of the other essays return to the poetry while exploring other dimensions of the life and work of the major Romantic poet, including his friendships and networks, and his critical and political prose. The result is a dialogic exploration of many major texts and problems in Wordsworth scholarship. This uniquely comprehensive handbook is structured so as to present, in turn, Wordsworth’s life, career and networks; aspects of the major lyrical and narrative poetry; components of ‘The Recluse’; his poetical inheritance and his transformation of poetics; the variety of intellectual influences upon his work, from classical republican thought to modern science; his shaping of modern culture through his intellectual legacy in such fields as gender, landscape, psychology, ethics, politics, religion and ecology; and his 19th- and 20th-century reception—most importantly by poets, but also in modern criticism and scholarship. It offers the fullest treatment of Wordsworth’s poetic career imaginable in a single volume.

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