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William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).
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culture · English Romantic poet (1770–1850) · poet · lyricist · writer · also William Wordsworth, Wordsworth
Born 7 April 1770 · Died 23 April 1850 · Q45546
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“We have hills which, seen from a distance, almost take the character of mountains, some cultivated nearly to their summits, others in their wild state covered with furze and broom. These delight me the most as they remind me of our native wilds.”
Retail Beauty: Founder Catriona Wordsworth on building Optimum Brands and Lady Gray
BBC: Grasmere display for auctioned William Wordsworth letters
The Guardian: Future of William Wordsworth’s Lake District home secured for the public
jagranjosh.com: Quote of the Day by William Wordsworth
The Guardian: ‘This treasure belongs to the nation’: Miriam Margolyes and Brian Cox join calls to save Wordsworth’s home
The Conversation: William Wordsworth’s last home is up for sale – returning it to a private residence would be a loss for the UK’s cultural heritage
The Guardian: Wreck of ship captained by William Wordsworth’s brother given protection
The Guardian: Poem of the week: To Toussaint Louverture by William Wordsworth
The Guardian: Welsh mansion that inspired Wordsworth and Coleridge on the verge of collapse
MutualArt.com: William Wordsworth
The Guardian: ‘Remixed’ version of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads highlights 21st-century poverty
The Guardian: William Wordsworth's 250th anniversary marked with mass readings
Psychology Today: The Greatness of William Wordsworth
Indiatimes: 10 Poems by William Wordsworth you should read
The Economist: William Wordsworth was the supreme bard of nature and solitude
Indiatimes: Why you should read William Wordsworth?
“the child is father to the man”
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Died 1850-04-23.
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“A poesia é o transbordamento espontâneo de sentimentos intensos: tem a sua origem na emoção recordada num estado de tranquilidade.”
“One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.”
“True beauty dwells in deep retreats, Whose veil is unremoved Till heart with heart in concord beats, And the lover is beloved.”
At age 42 was difficult for the ageing poet to take, and in his depression, he ultimately gave up writing new material
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Career landmark: Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (1843–1850).
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Wordsworth became Poet Laureate
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The government awarded him a Civil List pension of £300 a year
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Wordsworth received an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Durham
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The Scottish poet and playwright Joanna Baillie reflected on her long acquaintance with Wordsworth
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Their loss being a difficult blow to Wordsworth
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And she remained ill for the remainder of her life
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“He Lived Amidst Th'Untrodden Ways”
Wordsworth also mended his relations with Coleridge
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Wordsworth settled £30 a year on her (equivalent to £2,000 in 2021), payments which continued until 1835, when they were replaced by a capital settlement
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Wordsworth published The Excursion as the second part of the three-part work The Recluse even though he never completed the first or third parts
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And his family, including Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, Ambleside (between Grasmere and Rydal Water), where he spent the rest of his life
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That he was willing to shed his blood for the established Church of England, reflected in his Ecclesiastical Sketches of 1822
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Wordsworth and Coleridge were estranged over the latter's opium addiction, and in 1812 his son Thomas died at the age of 6, six months after the death of 3-year-old Catherine
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Wordsworth published Poems, in Two Volumes, including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"
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When the ship of which he was captain, 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
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Affected him strongly and may have influenced his decisions about these works
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But refused to publish such a personal work until he had completed the whole of The Recluse
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They had three other siblings: Richard, the eldest, who became a lawyer; John Wordsworth, born after Dorothy, who went to sea and died in 1805 when the ship of which he was captain, 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.
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Began expanding this autobiographical work, having decided to make it a prologue rather than an appendix
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Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy visited Annette and Caroline in Calais
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Lowther's heir, William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, paid the £4,000 (equivalent to £337,132 in 2025) owed to Wordsworth's father through Lowther's failure to pay his aide
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Had only Wordsworth listed as the author and included a preface to the poems
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Born 1770-04-07.
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