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Poetic visionary
Wordsworth: 'The Lakeland poet'
April 7, 1998
Web posted at: 2:24 p.m. EST (1924 GMT)(CNN) -- The English poet William Wordsworth was aptly named. His profound thought and use of ordinary language have helped generations realize the innovation of poetry. Tuesday is his birthday.
Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, England. He graduated from Cambridge in 1791 and traveled abroad. It was his time spent away from England that allowed him to return with a broader sense of his writing.
He became intrigued by France and drew upon his time there for much of his early work. It was also in France that he met Annette Vallon. She bore him a daughter but they never married.
SELECTED WORKS "An Evening Walk" 1793 "Descriptive Sketches" 1793 "Lyrical Ballads" 1798 "The Prelude" completed in 1805,
not published until after his death"Poems in Two Volumes" 1807 "The Excursion" 1814 "Laodamia" 1815 "Memorials of a Tour of the Continent, 1820" 1822 MESSAGE BOARD What's your favorite poem? In 1793, he returned to England in the wake of the French Revolution and published "An Evening Walk" and "Descriptive Sketches".
The Reign of Terror prevented him from returning to France. He decided to settle in Dorsetshire with his sister, Dorothy, who also shared his poetic vision and principles. Her journals detailing the work of her brother were published after her death.
He wrote "Lyrical Ballads" in 1798 with his close friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The ballads, which included "Tintern Abbey", were written in ordinary speech and helped introduce romanticism to England.
In 1799, William and Dorothy set up house in Grasmere, in the Lake District. He married Mary Hutchinson in 1802.
Known for his love of nature and radicalism, he would eventually abandon the latter. He was named poet laureate in 1843.
He once said, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."
Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850. He is buried in Grasmere.
Related sites:
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- William Wordsworth: Library of Congress Citations
- The New Bartleby Digital Library: Complete Poetical Works
- William Wordsworth On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford for Naples
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