Bio
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an English poet who played a central role in the Romantic movement in literature. His poetry was known for its celebration of nature and its ability to inspire deep emotion in its readers.
Early Life: Wordsworth was born in the town of Cockermouth in the Lake District of England in 1770. His father died when he was young, and he was sent to live with his mother’s parents in the countryside. It was here that he developed a love of nature, which would later become a central theme in his poetry.
Education and Early Career: Wordsworth attended Cambridge University, where he became interested in literature and began to write his own poetry. He traveled to France during the Revolution and was inspired by the ideals of liberty and equality that he saw there. This experience would shape his political beliefs and influence his later poetry.
Collaboration with Coleridge: In 1798, Wordsworth collaborated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge on a book of poetry called “Lyrical Ballads.” This book is considered a landmark in the history of English literature, as it introduced a new style of poetry that focused on everyday life and ordinary people. It was a critical success, and helped to establish Wordsworth and Coleridge as leading figures in the Romantic movement.
Marriage and Family: Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson in 1802, and the couple had five children together. They lived in the Lake District for much of their lives, and Wordsworth’s poetry from this period often reflects the joys and challenges of family life.
Later Years: In his later years, Wordsworth became increasingly interested in politics and social justice. He served as a government official and was involved in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. His poetry from this period is more philosophical and reflective, and often deals with themes of mortality and the passage of time. He died in 1850, widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the English language.
Some famous works
- An Evening Walk (1793)
- Descriptive Sketches (1793)
- Lyrical Ballads (1798, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
- “Tintern Abbey” (1798, included in Lyrical Ballads)
- Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)
- The Prelude (published posthumously in 1850, but composed between 1798 and 1805)
- “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (1807)
- “The Solitary Reaper” (1807)
- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807)
- The Excursion (1814)
- Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years (1842)
Important Lines
Here are some famous lines from William Wordsworth’s poetry that have been frequently asked in different exams:
- “The child is father of the man.” (From “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold”)
- “I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills.” (From “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”)
- “The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” (From “The World Is Too Much with Us”)
- “She was a phantom of delight / When first she gleamed upon my sight.” (From “She Was a Phantom of Delight”)
- “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh from afar.” (From “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”)
- “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!” (From “The Prelude”)
- “A slumber did my spirit seal; / I had no human fears.” (From “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal”)
- “I have felt / A presence that disturbs me with the joy / Of elevated thoughts.” (From “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”)
- “Not in utter nakedness, / But trailing clouds of glory do we come.” (From “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”)
- “And we are put on earth a little space, / That we might learn to bear the beams of love.” (From “The Prelude”)
Some famous work collections of Wordsworth
- Lyrical Ballads (1798, co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge) – This collection is considered a landmark in English literature and marked the beginning of the Romantic movement.
- Poems in Two Volumes (1807) – This collection contains some of Wordsworth’s most famous poems, including “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” “Tintern Abbey,” and “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.”
- The Excursion (1814) – This long poem is often considered Wordsworth’s masterpiece and deals with themes of nature, spirituality, and the human condition.
- Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years (1842) – This collection contains a wide range of poems from throughout Wordsworth’s career, from his early experiments with nature poetry to his later reflections on aging and mortality.
- The Prelude (published posthumously in 1850) – This long autobiographical poem is considered one of Wordsworth’s greatest achievements and explores his own development as a poet and thinker.
Wordsworth’s Opinions on some famous writers and poets
William Wordsworth had high regard for many of his contemporaries and predecessors in English literature. Here are a few examples of his opinions about other writers:
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Wordsworth had a close friendship and working relationship with Coleridge, and the two collaborated on the influential collection Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth had great admiration for Coleridge’s imaginative powers and once called him “the only man I ever knew who could carry you away from yourself.”
- John Milton – Wordsworth was deeply influenced by Milton’s poetry and often praised his epic poem Paradise Lost. In his preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote that Milton’s “style is, in the highest degree, worthy of admiration, as possessing, in an eminent degree, every species of excellence.”
- William Shakespeare – Wordsworth had a lifelong love of Shakespeare’s plays and often quoted them in his own poetry. He once wrote, “Shakespeare had a greater knowledge of the human heart than any other writer,” and he considered Shakespeare to be the greatest writer in the English language.
- Sir Walter Scott – Wordsworth was a great admirer of Scott’s historical novels and praised his ability to capture the spirit of different times and places in his writing.
- Jane Austen – Although Wordsworth did not personally know Jane Austen, he was a fan of her novels and admired her ability to depict everyday life with humor and insight. In a letter to a friend, Wordsworth wrote, “Miss Austen is a very pretty creature, a great novelty with us.”