William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) 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).
"Wordsworth" redirects here. For other uses, see Wordsworth (disambiguation).
William Wordsworth
7 April 1770
Cockermouth, Cumberland, England
23 April 1850 (aged 80)
Rydal, Westmorland, England
5, including Dora
- Dorothy Wordsworth (sister)
- Christopher Wordsworth (brother)
- Richard Wordsworth (great-great-grandson)
- John Wordsworth (nephew)
Poet
Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published by his wife in the year of his death, before which it was generally known as "the poem to Coleridge".
Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850.
In 1802, Lowther's heir, William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, paid the £4,000 (equivalent to £379,955 in 2021) owed to Wordsworth's father through Lowther's failure to pay his aide.[20] It was this repayment that afforded Wordsworth the financial means to marry. On 4 October, following his visit with Dorothy to France to arrange matters with Annette, Wordsworth married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson, at All Saints' Church, Brompton.[8] Dorothy continued to live with the couple and grew close to Mary. The following year Mary gave birth to the first of five children, three of whom predeceased her and William:
Later career[edit]
Autobiographical work and Poems, in Two Volumes[edit]
Wordsworth had for years been making plans to write a long philosophical poem in three parts, which he intended to call The Recluse.[24] In 1798–99 he started an autobiographical poem, which he referred to as the "poem to Coleridge" and which he planned would serve as an appendix to a larger work called The Recluse. In 1804 he began expanding this autobiographical work, having decided to make it a prologue rather than an appendix.[25] He completed this work, now generally referred to as the first version of The Prelude, in 1805, but refused to publish such a personal work until he had completed the whole of The Recluse. The death of his brother John, also in 1805, affected him strongly and may have influenced his decisions about these works.[26]
Laureateship and other honours[edit]
Wordsworth remained a formidable presence in his later years. In 1837, the Scottish poet and playwright Joanna Baillie reflected on her long acquaintance with Wordsworth. "He looks like a man that one must not speak to unless one has some sensible thing to say. However he does occasionally converse cheerfully & well; and when one knows how benevolent & excellent he is, it disposes one to be very much pleased with him."[38]
In 1838, Wordsworth received an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Durham and the following year he was awarded the same honorary degree by the University of Oxford, when John Keble praised him as the "poet of humanity", praise greatly appreciated by Wordsworth.[8][39] (It has been argued that Wordsworth was a great influence on Keble's immensely popular book of devotional poetry, The Christian Year (1827).[40]) In 1842, the government awarded him a Civil List pension of £300 a year.
Following the death of Robert Southey in 1843 Wordsworth became Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying that he was too old, but accepted when the Prime Minister, Robert Peel, assured him that "you shall have nothing required of you". Wordsworth thus became the only poet laureate to write no official verses. The sudden death of his daughter Dora in 1847 at age 42 was difficult for the aging poet to take and in his depression, he completely gave up writing new material.
Composer Alicia Van Buren (1860–1922) used text by Wordsworth for her song "In Early Spring".[44]
Margaret Louisa Woods portrayed the young Wordsworth in her novel A Poet's Youth (1923).
Ken Russell's 1978 film William and Dorothy portrays the relationship between William and his sister Dorothy.[45]
Wordsworth and Coleridge's friendship is examined by Julien Temple in his 2000 film Pandaemonium.[46]
Wordsworth has appeared as a character in works of fiction, including:
Isaac Asimov's 1966 novelisation of the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage sees Dr. Peter Duval quoting Wordsworth's The Prelude as the miniaturised submarine sails through the cerebral fluid surrounding a human brain, comparing it to the "strange seas of thought".
Taylor Swift's 2020 album Folklore mentions Wordsworth in her bonus track "The Lakes", which is thought to be about the Lake District.[47]
Commemoration[edit]
In April 2020, the Royal Mail issued a series of postage stamps to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wordsworth. Ten 1st class stamps were issued, featuring Wordsworth and all the major British Romantic poets, including William Blake, John Keats, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Walter Scott. Each stamp included an extract from one of their most popular and enduring works, with Wordsworth's "The Rainbow" selected for the poet.[48]
