wwbio

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Wordsworth, William (1770-1850), English poet, one of the
most accomplished and influential of England's romantic poets,
whose theories and style created a new tradition in poetry.

   Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth,
   Cumberland, and educated at Saint John's College, University of
   Cambridge. He developed a keen love of nature as a youth, and
   during school vacation periods he frequently visited places noted
   for their scenic beauty. In the summer of 1790 he took a walking
   tour through France and Switzerland. After receiving his degree
   in 1791 he returned to France, where he became an enthusiastic
   convert to the ideals of the French Revolution (1789-1799). His
   lover Annette Vallon of Orleans bore him a daughter in December
   1792, shortly before his return to England. Disheartened by the
   outbreak of hostilities between France and Great Britain in 1793,
   Wordsworth nevertheless remained sympathetic to the French
   cause.

   Although Wordsworth had begun to write poetry while still a
   schoolboy, none of his poems was published until 1793, when An
   Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches appeared. These works,
   although fresh and original in content, reflect the influence of
   the formal style of 18th-century English poetry. The poems
   received little notice, and few copies were sold.

   Wordsworth's income from his writings amounted to little, but his
   financial problems were alleviated for a time when in 1795 he
   received a bequest of £900 from a close friend. Thereupon he
   and his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, went to live in Racedown,
   Dorsetshire. The two had always enjoyed a warmly sympathetic
   relationship, and Wordsworth relied greatly on Dorothy, his
   devoted confidante, for encouragement in his literary endeavors.
   Her mental breakdown in later years was to cause him great
   sorrow, as did the death of his brother John. William had met the
   poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an enthusiastic admirer of his early
   poetic efforts, and in 1797 he and Dorothy moved to Alfoxden,
   Somersetshire, near Coleridge's home in Nether Stowey. The
   move marked the beginning of a close and enduring friendship
   between the poets. In the ensuing period they collaborated on a
   book of poems entitled Lyrical Ballads, first published in 1798.

   This work is generally taken to mark the beginning of the
   romantic movement in English poetry. Wordsworth wrote almost
   all the poems in the volume, including the memorable "Tintern
   Abbey"; Coleridge contributed the famous "Rime of the Ancient
   Mariner." Representing a revolt against the artificial classicism of
   contemporary English verse, Lyrical Ballads was greeted with
   hostility by most leading critics of the day.

   In defense of his unconventional theory of poetry, Wordsworth
   wrote a "Preface" to the second edition of Ballads, which
   appeared in 1800 (actual date of publication, 1801). His premise
   was that the source of poetic truth is the direct experience of
   the senses. Poetry, he asserted, originates from "emotion
   recollected in tranquillity." Rejecting the contemporary emphasis
   on form and an intellectual approach that drained poetic writing
   of strong emotion, he maintained that the scenes and events of
   everyday life and the speech of ordinary people were the raw
   material of which poetry could and should be made. Far from
   conciliating the critics, the "Preface" served only to increase
   their hostility. Wordsworth, however, was not discouraged,
   continuing to write poetry that graphically illustrated his
   principles.

   Before the publication of the "Preface," Wordsworth and his
   sister had accompanied Coleridge to Germany in 1798 and 1799.
   There Wordsworth wrote several of his finest lyrical verses, the
   "Lucy" poems, and began The Prelude. This introspective
   account of his own development was completed in 1805 and,
   after substantial revision, published posthumously in 1850. Many
   critics rank it as Wordsworth's greatest work.

   Returning to England, William and his sister settled in 1799 at
   Dove Cottage in Grasmere, Westmorland, the loveliest spot in the
   English Lake District. The poet Robert Southey as well as
   Coleridge lived nearby, and the three men became known as the
   Lake Poets. In 1802 Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson, a
   childhood friend, who is portrayed in the charming lyric "She Was
   a Phantom of Delight." In 1807Poems in Two Volumes was
   published. The work contains much of Wordsworth's finest verse,
   notably the superb "Ode: Intimations of Immortality," the
   autobiographical narrative "Resolution and Independence," and
   many of his well-known sonnets.

   In 1813 Wordsworth obtained a sinecure as distributor of stamps
   for Westmorland at a salary of £400 a year. In the same year he
   and his family and sister moved to Rydal Mount, a few kilometers
   from Dove Cottage, and there the poet spent the remainder of
   his life, except for periodic travels.

   Wordsworth's political and intellectual sympathies underwent a
   transformation after 1800. By 1810 his viewpoint was staunchly
   conservative. He was disillusioned by the course of events in
   France culminating in the rise of Napoleon; his circle of friends,
   including the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, also influenced
   him in the direction of orthodoxy.

   As he advanced in age, Wordsworth's poetic vision and
   inspiration dulled; his later, more rhetorical, moralistic poems
   cannot be compared to the lyrics of his youth, although a
   number of them are illumined by the spark of his former
   greatness. Between 1814 and 1822 his publications included The
   Excursion (1814), a continuation of The Prelude but lacking the
   power and beauty of that work; The White Doe of Rylstone
   (1815); Peter Bell (1819); and Ecclesiastical Sonnets (1822).
   Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems appeared in 1835, but after
   that Wordsworth wrote little more. Among his other poetic works
   are The Borderers: A Tragedy (1796; published 1842), Michael
   (1800), The Recluse (1800; published 1888), Laodamia (1815),
   and Memorials of a Tour on the Continent (1822). Wordsworth
   also wrote the prose works Convention of Cintra (1809) and A
   Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the North of England
   (1810; reprinted with additions, 1822).

   Much of Wordsworth's easy flow of conversational blank verse
   has true lyrical power and grace, and his finest work is
   permeated by a sense of the human relationship to external
   nature that is religious in its scope and intensity. To
   Wordsworth, God was everywhere manifest in the harmony of
   nature, and he felt deeply the kinship between nature and the
   soul of humankind.

   The tide of critical opinion turned in his favor after 1820, and
   Wordsworth lived to see his work universally praised. In 1842 he
   was awarded a government pension, and in the following year he
   succeeded Southey as poet laureate. Wordsworth died at Rydal
   Mount, April 23, 1850, and was buried in the Grasmere
   churchyard.

   Contributed By:
   Michael G. Sundell, M.A., Ph.D.
   Professor of Humanities, The Cooper Union.

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