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    William Wordsworth

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    Jeliegh Gasmin
    William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an influential English Romantic poet. He was orphaned as a child and studied at Cambridge University. Wordsworth's experiences traveling through Europe and the French Revolution influenced his sympathy for common people. He published Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's most famous work, The Prelude, chronicles his spiritual life and is considered the crowning achievement of English Romanticism, though it was published posthumously. He spent his later years in the Lake District of England continuing to write poetry until devastated by his daughter's death in 1847.

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    William Wordsworth

    Uploaded by

    Jeliegh Gasmin
    50 views1 page
    William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an influential English Romantic poet. He was orphaned as a child and studied at Cambridge University. Wordsworth's experiences traveling through Europe and the French Revolution influenced his sympathy for common people. He published Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's most famous work, The Prelude, chronicles his spiritual life and is considered the crowning achievement of English Romanticism, though it was published posthumously. He spent his later years in the Lake District of England continuing to write poetry until devastated by his daughter's death in 1847.

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    William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an influential English Romantic poet. He was orphaned as a child and studied at Cambridge University. Wordsworth's experiences traveling through Europe and the French Revolution influenced his sympathy for common people. He published Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's most famous work, The Prelude, chronicles his spiritual life and is considered the crowning achievement of English Romanticism, though it was published posthumously. He spent his later years in the Lake District of England continuing to write poetry until devastated by his daughter's death in 1847.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    50 views1 page

    William Wordsworth

    Uploaded by

    Jeliegh Gasmin
    William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an influential English Romantic poet. He was orphaned as a child and studied at Cambridge University. Wordsworth's experiences traveling through Europe and the French Revolution influenced his sympathy for common people. He published Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's most famous work, The Prelude, chronicles his spiritual life and is considered the crowning achievement of English Romanticism, though it was published posthumously. He spent his later years in the Lake District of England continuing to write poetry until devastated by his daughter's death in 1847.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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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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