William Wordsworth was a devotee of Nature. He was inspired by Nature to write poetry. He was the pioneer in the English Romantic Movement.
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He launched the English Romantic Revolution with the help of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by their joint work, The Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth was the poet laureate of England from 1843 to 1850. Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in the Late district of northern England. He lost his parents at an early age. He completed his education from Hawkshead Grammar School and then from St. John’s College, Cambridge. he married Annette Vallon, a French woman and later, marry Hutchinson, an English lady. He was blessed with six children. Wordsworth composed a great number of poems which deal with Nature, rural people and human nature. He created some of the greatest English poetry of his century. Critics place him next to John Milton and William Shakespeare among all time great poets of English Literature.
There are many well-known names in the world of literature. The poems of William Wordsworth have impressed me the most. his poems soothe the senses. He was a devotee of Nature. he was inspired by Nature to write poetry. Reading Wordsworth is like sitting amidst Nature.
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Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in the Lake district of northern England. He was the second of five children of a prosperous estate manager. Both his parents died at an early age and so Wordsworth was sent of by his guardian to a grammar school at Hawkshead. There he received education in classics, literature and mathematics. The beautiful landscape at Hawkshead gave him confidence and pleasure and inspired him. He grew amidst nature, playing and indulging in boyhood pleasures outdoors.
Wordsworth moved on in 1787 to St. John’s College, Cambridge. In 1790, he went on a summer vacation to France. After attaining his degree from Cambridge, he went back to France in 1791. Due to the outbreak of war between England and France, he had to return to England in 1792.
For the first three or four years after his return to England, Wordsworth lived poor life with no work. The aftermath of the war moved Wordsworth with sympathy for the sufferers. At this time, he started writing poetry. He also reunited with his sister Dorothy whom he loved dearly. at this time, Wordsworth became friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a fellow poet. They formed a partnership in writing. It is this partnership that altered the course of English poetry.
While Wordsworth was in France, in 1791 he married Annette Vallon, a French woman, but before their daughter was born, war compelled him to return to England in 1792. He met his daughter and his wife in 1802 when he went to France again for some time. Later, he got married to Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend. They were blessed with three sons and two daughters by 1810.
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The Lyrical Ballads is the joint work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. this collection of poems helped launch the English Romantic Movement. It set forth a new style, a new subjects for poetry. The Lyrical Ballads start with Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and ends with Wordsworth’s poem, Tintern Abbey. The poems in this collection deal with Nature, portraits of simple rural people and the basis truths of human nature.
The Prelude is among Wordsworth’s finest poems. it reflects ‘the growth of a poet’s mind’. It is an autobiographical poem. It describes they way in which the imagination overpowers the reason and the senses. Wordsworth’s other works include The Excursion, a collection of nine poems; Ecclesiastical Sketches, Home at Grasmere, The Borderers, Salisbury Plain, The White Doe of Rylstone, Thanksgiving Ode, Peter Bell, The Waggoner, The River Duddon, etc. In his later years, Wordsworth revised the edition of his earlier poems.
Some of the immortal poems of Wordsworth that still rule the lips include The Solitary Reaper, Daffodils, Tintern Abbey and many others. Wordsworth wrote in Tintern Abbey that ‘ Nature never did betray the heart that loved her’. He formulated in his poems, a new attitude towards Nature. He introduced nature imagery into his poems. Wordsworth was a worshipper of Nature which is evident in his poems. His poems depict man’s relation with nature. he also dealt with human nature. He further placed poetry at the centre of human experience.
According to Wordsworth, poetry is ‘the first and last of all knowledge – it is as immortal as the heart of man’. Critics place Wordsworth next to John Milton and William Shakespeare among all time great poets of English Literature. His contribution of English Literate is great.