William Wordsworth Biography: William Wordsworth Life Story

William Wordsworth is a famous English Poet who is known for introducing romanticism in English literature that was widely famous and read by all kinds of readers and intellects around the globe and even now. With the help of another versatile poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he successfully introduced the romantic genre in English literature under their joint publication of a book named Lyrical Ballad that was published in the year 1978. It is a compilation of the poems of Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor. According to William Wordsworth biography, the Prelude which is considered a compilation of William Wordsworth autobiography poems in blank verse is considered as the masterpiece of the writer among all his works.  He later revised and expanded the Prelude a number of times. William Wordsworth was considered as the Poet Laureate in England that is considered as an honorary position that was appointed to him by the ministry (then monarch) of the United Kingdom from the year 1843 until his death in the year 1850. 

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Image: Life sketch of William Wordsworth by Benjamin Hydon.

William Wordsworth Early Life

William Wordsworth birthplace was in Cockermouth situated in Cumberland, England on 7th April 1770. He was 13 years of age when his mother died. Even after the grief of losing his mother that he carried, he still managed some excellent grades in his Hawkshead Grammar School. In his school, he wrote his first poem and thereafter he went for higher studies at Cambridge University. Though he couldn’t do that well as he did in school with his grades, he managed to graduate from the university in the year 1791. According to Willam Wordsworth biography, he visited France in the year 1790 during the time of the French Revolution as he was supporting the republican ideas of the new government. Afterwards, he visited France where he fell in love with a lady named Annette Vallon who was carrying his child and gave birth to a little girl in 1792. But they were eventually forced to drift apart due to the declaration of the war between England and France in the year 1793. Left unanchored and without any income, he came under the influence of many radical figures such as William Godwin.

However, in the year 1795, he acquired some inheritance and started living with his sister Dorthy. Later in the same year, he met with another poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Eventually, they became friends and together started working on a series of poems that were later published in the year 1798 by the name of Lyrical Ballads. Out of many poems, a few of the famous pieces that were included in the book were “Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Tintern Abbey”. With this book, they built the first foundation of romanticism in the history of English literature, especially in poetry. In the same year, the writer published his second work “The Prelude”, an epic piece of autobiographical poems inspired by the life of the poet that he later revised many times throughout his life. While working on “The Prelude” he has also written poems such as “Lucy”. He also developed the second edition of “Lyrical Ballads” which was inspired by the strong emotions that are still seen as a pillar of romanticism principles.   

William Wordsworth Life and Works

1. Publication of The First Poem

His first poems were published in the year 1793 that included poems like “Descriptive Sketches” and “An Evening Walk”. Over the next few years, he wrote several other poems. William Wordsworth through his works wanted to challenge the insane style of writing of many modern writers that consisted of unnecessarily flashy and out of context wordings. Most of his work is a reflection of deep emotions felt by an ordinary person in the simplest manner and in their own language. His new forms of poetry were described clearly in the “Prefaces” of the preceding poetry in the second edition that was published in 1800  

2.Tintern Abbey

One of his most excellent contributions of work in this book is “Line Composed a Few Miles Above The Tintern Abbey” which he just wrote before the final submission. This is the one masterpiece that truly reflected his potential at its best level. It is an amalgamation of the facts of nature that is described in the most magical and surreal sense of infinity with the exploration of the philosophical speculation within oneself.  Thus it is considered as the best combination of the inside and outside world. This poem is a reflection of the sombre but confident acknowledgement of nature’s healing power.  

3. Marriage and Children

In 1802, William Wordsworth received an inheritance wealth of a value of 4000 pounds that the Lother’s heir, the 1st earl of Lonsdale was supposed to pay to the poet’s father but finally failed to pay him as he was his assistant. Later that money has helped the poet to make arrangements for his marriage. When he again visited France with his sister Dorthy to settle matters with Annette, he ended up marrying his childhood friend named Mary Hutchinson. Dorthy started to live with the couple and grew close to Mary as a family. Later the couple was blessed with five children out of which three died before the death of the poet and his wife in an unfortunate series of events. 

 4.Middle Age Poems

Later years as he was working on ‘Lyrical Ballads” he was inspired towards bigger more ambitious poems. He wrote an unrhymed verse of a poem named “The Ruined Cottage” which was a long poem that was later renamed “The Peddler” later by the poet himself. This was written with an idea to be a part of an even vast philosophical poem that was titled “The Recluse or Views of Man, Nature and Society” but the poet wasn’t able to complete the project as it was originally planned to materialize. He was never comfortable with impersonal or abstract ideas of writing and he could only rhyme the philosophy with the poem only if it was related to his personal experience or motivated his creative feelings or imaginations. He started working on one of his great masterpieces “The Prelude” when he was in Germany and it was published after his death. 

Even after creating the great masterpieces as long-form of philosophical poems, it was not his comfortable place. So he returned to writing short poems that turned out to be the work for the most part of his life. Most of his inspiration came from nature and the common people he was surrounded with. Among a few of his beautiful short creations are “ To A Butterfly '', “ I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud”, “ The Rainbow”, “To The Cuckoo '' among others.   

5. Change in Philosophy

There was a crucial period in Wordsworth life when he was emotionally struggling with the losses that inculcated a feeling of oneness. A mood of depression shadowed over the poet when he was mere 32 years of age. His revisit to France with his sister and his friend became more detrimental for his mental health as it brought back all the scared memories of the French Revolution and its aftermath. Once he came to peace with the reality of life that has a contradiction, he started to work towards refining his emotions and understanding that allowed him to measure the meaning of life in a unique way. In 1802 a huge change happened in his life where he refined his work to produce some of his greatest poems that followed him on another journey. His best works of 1802 are deep with much deeper meaning and emotions that were reflected in his poem “Intimation of Immortality”. 

Religious Belief

According to William Wordsworth short biographies though the poet in his youthful times was under influence of political radicalism this has never led him to rebel against any religious upbringing that includes his own religious upbringing. In his remarkable work of 1812, “Ecclesiastical Sketches” that was a clear reflection of his thought where he expressed his desire to shed his blood for the establishment of the Church of England. A similar religious conservatism is also reflected in his other work “The Excursion” a long poem that eventually became internationally acclaimed in the 19th century. It became popular because of its three central characters, namely, the wandered, the solitary who experienced the French Revolution and a pastor that finally dominated the last three portions of the poem.

Death of William Wordsworth

As from his childhood, he was more inclined to poetry and opened a new form of romantic poetry for the first time in the history of English literature where he first captured his childhood beautifully in a series of poems that was established as “Lyrical Ballad”. His works were always a reflection of simpler but deep meanings and feelings that are related to nature and the common man. His religious influence can be seen in his works of late years. He suffered many losses and traumas particularly from the French Revolution that has been reflected deeply in many of his poems. But throughout his life, most of his work included short poems but some of his masterpieces include vast poems that connect with his philosophical inclinations and romanticism at the same time. He finally died of a lung condition known as pleurisy on 23rd April 1950. He died in his home situated at Rydal Mount. He died when he was 80.