William Wordsworth Biography: Father of Romantic Poetry

William Wordsworth Biography – Discover William Wordsworth’s journey from Lake District orphan to Poet Laureate. Explore his revolutionary Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, and enduring legacy in English literature.

William Wordsworth Biography: Father of Romantic Poetry

William Wordsworth stands as one of the most influential poets in the English language, a towering figure whose revolutionary approach to poetry helped launch the Romantic movement and forever changed how we think about literature, nature, and human emotion. Born in 1770 in the scenic Lake District of England, Wordsworth championed the use of everyday language to express profound truths about the human condition, arguing that poetry should capture “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” and find beauty in ordinary life rather than grand, artificial subjects.

Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, a work that helped launch the English Romantic Age in literature. The principles he outlined in the preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1800 were revolutionary, seeking to compose poetry that reflects incidents and situations from common life in language really used by ordinary people. This approach essentially transformed English-language literature, breaking from the formal, elevated poetic diction that had dominated 18th-century verse.

Wordsworth’s magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded numerous times. Though completed in 1805, it was posthumously published by his wife in 1850, revealing the intimate story of a poet’s mind and his spiritual relationship with nature. Wordsworth served as Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on April 23, 1850, cementing his status as one of England’s greatest literary figures.

Early Life & Education: Shaped by Loss and Nature

William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in what is now named Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland, now part of Cumbria, in the scenic Lake District of northwestern England. He was the second of five children born to John Wordsworth, a legal representative of James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, and Ann Cookson. The family lived in a large mansion in Cockermouth that came with John Wordsworth’s employment by the powerful Lowther family.

William’s sister Dorothy Wordsworth, the poet and diarist to whom he was close all his life, was born the following year, and the two were baptized together. Their other siblings included Richard, the eldest, who became a lawyer; John, who went to sea and died in 1805 when his ship the Earl of Abergavenny wrecked off the south coast of England; and Christopher, the youngest, who entered the Church and rose to be Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Wordsworth was taught to read by his mother, and he first attended a tiny school of low quality in Cockermouth, then a school in Penrith for children of upper-class families. He was taught there by Ann Birkett, who instilled in her students traditions that included pursuing scholarly and local activities, especially the festivals around Easter, May Day and Shrove Tuesday. At the school in Penrith, he met the Hutchinsons, including Mary Hutchinson, who later became his wife.

Tragedy struck early in Wordsworth’s life. In March 1778, his mother Ann died of an illness, possibly pneumonia, at Penrith, when William was just eight years old. After his mother’s death, Wordsworth’s father sent him to Hawkshead Grammar School in Lancashire and sent Dorothy to live with relatives in Yorkshire. She and William did not meet again for nine years.

Wordsworth’s father died in 1783, and the young Wordsworth became an orphan at thirteen. His father’s brother and his mother’s elder brother were named joint guardians of the children, and the four orphaned boys were sent to the latter. Their uncle proved to be hostile and insensitive toward them, never ceased to remind them of their poverty, and seems even to have encouraged the servants to neglect and abuse his charges. William appears to have been particularly disliked.

Wordsworth’s early childhood beside the Derwent River and his schooling at Cockermouth and Hawkshead would provide the poet with a store of images and sensory experiences that he would continue to draw on throughout his poetic career. The natural scenery of the English lakes could terrify as well as nurture, as Wordsworth would later testify with the lines “I grew up / Foster’d alike by beauty and by fear”.

Wordsworth debuted as a writer in 1787 when he published a sonnet in The European Magazine. That same year, he moved on to St. John’s College, Cambridge. Repelled by the competitive pressures there, he elected to idle his way through university, convinced that he was not for that hour, nor for that place. For the summer of 1790, Wordsworth planned something so reckless that he kept it secret from all his family, even his sister: a walking tour across revolutionary France to the Alps. Wordsworth’s companion was Robert Jones, a Welshman who remained a lifelong friend, and by late September, with £20 apiece, they had travelled nearly 3000 miles, more than 2000 of them on foot.

Career Journey: From Revolutionary to Romantic Poet

After graduating from Cambridge in 1791, Wordsworth’s life took dramatic turns that would shape both his poetry and his politics. In November 1791, Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France and became enchanted with the Republican movement. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, the daughter of a French Royalist, who in 1792 gave birth to their daughter Caroline. Financial problems and Britain’s tense relations with France forced him to return to England alone the following year.

The Reign of Terror left Wordsworth thoroughly disillusioned with the French Revolution. In 1793, Wordsworth saw the first publication of his poems in the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. In 1795 he received a legacy of £900 from Raisley Calvert and became able to pursue a career as a poet.

It was also in 1795 that he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset, and the two poets quickly developed a close friendship. In 1797, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy moved to Alfoxton House, Somerset, just a few miles away from Coleridge’s home in Nether Stowey. Together Wordsworth and Coleridge, with insights from Dorothy, produced Lyrical Ballads in 1798, an important work in the English Romantic movement.

These poems appeared in a slim, anonymously authored volume which opened with Coleridge’s long poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and closed with Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”. All but three of the intervening poems were Wordsworth’s, and as he declared in a preface to the second edition two years later, their object was to choose incidents and situations from common life and relate or describe them in language really used by ordinary people. The manifesto and the accompanying poems thus set forth a new style, a new vocabulary, and new subjects for poetry, all of them foreshadowing 20th-century developments.

With the Peace of Amiens in 1802 allowing travel to France again, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy visited Annette and Caroline in Calais. The purpose of the visit was to prepare Annette for the fact of his forthcoming marriage to Mary Hutchinson. Upon Caroline’s marriage in 1816, Wordsworth settled £30 a year on her, payments which continued until 1835 when they were replaced by a capital settlement.

After settling his affairs with Annette Vallon in the summer of 1802, Wordsworth returned to marry Mary Hutchinson that fall. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy settled in Grasmere, in the Lake District, where they rented a small house called Dove Cottage. Here, energized by his recovered roots and the natural beauty of his surroundings, Wordsworth’s genius flourished.

Wordsworth worked with great commitment during these years, composing a first draft of his autobiographical Prelude, which finally was published posthumously in 1850, as well as many significant lyrical poems that made up a new collection entitled Poems, in Two Volumes when it appeared in 1807. On February 5, 1805, John Wordsworth, now captain of an East Indiaman ship, the Earl of Abergavenny, was drowned in the wreck of his ship off Portland Bill. The family at Town End were inconsolable, and his brother’s death affected Wordsworth strongly.

By 1810 they had five children, but their happiness was tempered by the alienation from Coleridge in 1810 and the death of two children in 1812. In 1813 Wordsworth received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the £400 per year which went with this post made him financially secure. The whole family, which included Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, between Grasmere and Rydal Water.

Wordsworth’s fame continued to grow throughout his later years, and in 1838 he was awarded an honorary degree by Durham University, with Oxford conferring the same honor in 1839. Following the death of Robert Southey in 1843, Wordsworth was offered the post of poet laureate. He initially refused the honor, saying that he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him that he would have nothing required of him. Wordsworth thus became the only poet laureate to write no official verses.

The sudden death of his daughter Dora in 1847 at the age of only 42 was difficult for the aging poet to take, and in his depression, he completely gave up writing new material. William Wordsworth died at home at Rydal Mount from an aggravated case of pleurisy on April 23, 1850, and was buried at St. Oswald’s Church, Grasmere. His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical poem to Coleridge as The Prelude several months after his death.

Major Achievements: Revolutionary Literary Contributions

William Wordsworth’s achievements transformed English poetry and established principles that continue to influence literature today.

Launching the Romantic Movement: Wordsworth, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the English Romantic Age in literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads in 1798. This work broke decisively with 18th-century poetic conventions and established new aesthetic principles that would define Romantic poetry.

The Prelude: Wordsworth’s magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded numerous times. According to scholar Stephen Gill, the 1799 version was “the most sustained self-examination in English poetry”. Though completed in 1805, it was posthumously published in 1850 and has since come to be widely recognized as his masterpiece.

Revolutionary Poetic Theory: In the preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth discusses what he sees as the elements of a new type of verse, one based on the real language of ordinary people and avoiding the poetic diction of much 18th-century verse. This theoretical work is considered a central text of Romantic literary theory.

“Tintern Abbey”: One of Wordsworth’s most famous poems, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” was published in Lyrical Ballads. This meditation on memory, nature, and the passage of time exemplifies Wordsworth’s mature poetic style and philosophical depth.

Poems in Two Volumes: This 1807 collection included many significant lyrical poems that demonstrated the flowering of Wordsworth’s genius during his years at Dove Cottage. Though initially met with lukewarm critical reception, these poems are now recognized as masterpieces of Romantic poetry.

Poet Laureate: In 1843, Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, a position he held until his death in 1850. The appointment marked acknowledgment of his tremendous contribution to English literature.

Honorary Degrees: In 1838, Wordsworth received an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from Durham University, and the following year Oxford University awarded him the same degree. At the Oxford ceremony, John Keble praised him as the “poet of humanity,” praise greatly appreciated by Wordsworth.

Lasting Literary Influence: Wordsworth’s poetic theory presented in the preface to Lyrical Ballads proposed a new approach to poetry using the language of ordinary people and representing everyday life, an approach that appealed to readers and inspired many subsequent poets and writers. His influence extends through Victorian poetry into modern literature.

Personal Life: Love, Loss, and Literary Friendship

William Wordsworth’s personal life was deeply intertwined with his poetry, with his relationships profoundly influencing his creative work.

Dorothy Wordsworth: Dorothy Wordsworth, his sister, was one year his junior and preferred to become the poet’s lifelong companion rather than marry. Dorothy’s personal journals, with their detailed descriptions of walks in the countryside, were a major influence on both Wordsworth and Coleridge, but particularly on Wordsworth, whose poetry often sampled phrases describing nature from his sister’s journals. She lived with William and Mary throughout their married life and suffered physical and mental decline in the 1830s.

Annette Vallon and Caroline: Wordsworth fell in love with Annette Vallon during his time in Revolutionary France, and she gave birth to their daughter Caroline in 1792. After writing the sonnet “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,” which recalled a seaside walk with nine-year-old Caroline during their 1802 visit, Wordsworth settled financial support on his daughter. Upon Caroline’s marriage in 1816, Wordsworth settled £30 a year on her.

Marriage to Mary Hutchinson: Wordsworth met Mary Hutchinson during his school years at Penrith. They married in the fall of 1802 after Wordsworth settled his affairs with Annette Vallon. By 1810 they had five children, though tragedy struck when two of their children died in 1812 and their beloved daughter Dora died suddenly in 1847 at age 42.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The two poets quickly developed a close friendship after meeting in 1795. Coleridge died in 1834, and though the men had grown apart, Wordsworth continued to pay particular attention to Coleridge’s erratic first son, Hartley. Hartley died in 1849, only a few months before Wordsworth, who instructed that his friend’s son be buried in the Wordsworth plot in Grasmere Churchyard, saying “He would have wished it”.

The Lake Poets: Coleridge was settled in the Lake District vicinity, and soon he was accompanied by Robert Southey, who settled at Greta Hall, near Keswick, establishing the “Lake School” of Romantics.

Net Worth & Lifestyle: From Poverty to Financial Security

William Wordsworth’s financial situation dramatically improved over the course of his life, though he never achieved great wealth.

Wordsworth was short of money for much of his early life, but in 1795 received a bequest of £900 which enabled him to concentrate on a career as a poet and create a home with his sister Dorothy. This inheritance from Raisley Calvert was transformative, freeing Wordsworth from the necessity of pursuing a conventional career and allowing him to devote himself to poetry.

In 1802, Wordsworth received money owed to his father by Lord Lonsdale, an inheritance that had been withheld since John Wordsworth’s death in 1783. This financial windfall made him secure enough to marry Mary Hutchinson.

In 1813, Wordsworth received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the stipend of £400 per year made him financially secure, albeit at the cost of political independence. In practice, he received less than the expected £400 per year, but the position enabled Wordsworth and his household to move to Rydal Mount in the Lake District in 1813. He was able to pass the post on to his son William in 1842.

Later in life, other public recognition followed, including a government pension of £300 a year from 1842, supplementing his income from the Distributor of Stamps position.

Wordsworth’s lifestyle was relatively modest despite his literary fame. He lived primarily in the Lake District, first at Dove Cottage in Grasmere and later at the more substantial Rydal Mount. In addition to his poetry, Wordsworth published a travel guide to the Lake District which proved very popular, providing additional income and cementing his association with the region he loved.

His household typically included not just his wife Mary and their children, but also his sister Dorothy, creating a close-knit family environment that supported his creative work. The natural beauty of the Lake District, which he could enjoy daily through walks and contemplation, was perhaps his greatest wealth, providing endless inspiration for his poetry and fulfilling his deep spiritual need for connection with nature.

Recent News & Trends: An Enduring Legacy

Though William Wordsworth died in 1850, his influence on literature and culture continues to resonate into the present day, with his works remaining central to understanding English Romantic poetry and its ongoing influence.

Wordsworth’s poetry remains consistently in print and is studied in schools and universities worldwide. His poems, particularly “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (commonly known as “Daffodils”), “Tintern Abbey,” “The Prelude,” and his Lucy poems, continue to be anthologized and analyzed by scholars and enjoyed by general readers. His accessible language and profound observations about nature, memory, and human emotion make his work timelessly relevant.

The Lake District, which Wordsworth celebrated in his poetry and helped popularize through his writings, remains a major tourist destination partly due to its association with the poet. Dove Cottage in Grasmere, where Wordsworth lived from 1799 to 1808 and wrote his best poetry, is now a museum that attracts thousands of visitors annually. Rydal Mount, his home from 1813 to 1850, is also open to the public, allowing visitors to walk through the rooms where the poet lived and see the gardens he designed.

Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, his birthplace, is preserved as a National Trust property, offering insight into his early childhood and the environment that first shaped his sensibilities. These sites form a “Wordsworth Trail” through the Lake District that literary tourists follow to connect with the poet’s life and landscape.

Contemporary poets and writers continue to engage with Wordsworth’s work, writing responses to his poems, exploring his influence, and grappling with his complex legacy. His celebration of nature resonates particularly strongly in our current age of environmental crisis, with many finding his vision of humanity’s spiritual connection to the natural world prescient and necessary.

Academic conferences dedicated to Romantic literature regularly feature papers on Wordsworth, and new scholarly editions of his works continue to be published. Recent critical approaches have examined Wordsworth through various lenses including ecocriticism, examining his environmental consciousness; postcolonial criticism, investigating his views on empire and revolution; and gender studies, exploring his representations of women and his relationship with his sister Dorothy.

Numerous portraits capture Wordsworth across his whole poetic life from Lyrical Ballads to the laureateship, held in institutions including the National Portrait Gallery and the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere, ensuring his visual image remains part of cultural memory alongside his written works.

Legacy & Impact: The Poet of Nature and Humanity

William Wordsworth’s legacy extends far beyond his individual poems to encompass his revolutionary impact on how we think about poetry, nature, and the human experience.

Revolutionizing Poetic Language: Wordsworth’s most significant contribution to literature was the theory of poetry he presented in the preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, where he proposed a new approach using the language of ordinary people and representing everyday life. This democratization of poetic language opened poetry to subjects and styles previously considered unsuitable for serious verse.

Nature as Spiritual Teacher: Wordsworth regarded nature as a source of spiritual rejuvenation and creativity. His poems like “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Tintern Abbey” describe the beauty of nature and its role in the life of the human spirit. This vision of nature as a moral and spiritual guide has profoundly influenced environmental thinking and nature writing.

The Romantic Movement: The appearance of Lyrical Ballads was a landmark in the history of literature; Wordsworth emerged as one of the greatest poets of the Romantic age. His emphasis on emotion, imagination, individualism, and the sublime in nature helped define Romanticism as a cultural movement that extended beyond literature into music, art, and philosophy.

Influence on Later Poets: Wordsworth’s work directly influenced subsequent generations of poets including Victorian poets like Alfred Tennyson and Matthew Arnold, as well as modern poets who have grappled with his legacy. Matthew Arnold wrote, “Wordsworth’s poetry is great because of the extraordinary power with which Wordsworth feels the joy offered us in Nature, the joy offered us in the simple affections and duties; and because of the extraordinary power with which he shows us this joy, and renders it so as to make us share it”.

Psychological Depth: Through works like The Prelude, Wordsworth pioneered the exploration of psychological development and the formation of consciousness in poetry. His examination of memory, childhood experience, and their influence on adult identity anticipated later psychological theories and influenced autobiographical writing.

Cultural Icon: Wordsworth himself has become a cultural icon representing the Romantic poet—the solitary figure wandering through nature, finding inspiration in the natural world, and expressing deep emotion through carefully crafted verse. This romantic image of the poet has shaped public perceptions of what poets are and do.

Accessibility and Popularity: Unlike some literary figures whose work remains primarily academic, Wordsworth’s poems have maintained popular appeal alongside critical respect. His ability to express complex philosophical ideas in accessible language has allowed his work to reach audiences far beyond literary specialists.

Conclusion: A Poet for All Generations

William Wordsworth’s journey from orphaned child in the Lake District to Poet Laureate of England represents more than a personal success story; it embodies the power of poetry to capture and communicate fundamental truths about human experience and our relationship with the natural world.

His revolutionary approach to poetry—using everyday language to express profound emotions and finding sublime beauty in ordinary experience—transformed English literature and opened poetry to new subjects, styles, and readers. His vision of nature as a source of spiritual renewal and moral guidance provided a framework for understanding humanity’s place in the natural world that remains relevant and necessary today.

Though he lived through a period of intense political and social upheaval, experiencing firsthand the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Wordsworth ultimately found his subject matter not in grand historical events but in the quiet moments of ordinary life—a child’s response to nature, the memory of a landscape, the simple affections between people. This focus on the universal aspects of human experience gives his work a timeless quality that transcends its historical moment.

Though Wordsworth failed to arouse much interest when The Prelude was first published after his death, it has since come to be widely recognized as his masterpiece, demonstrating how his reputation has grown and solidified over time. His influence on English and world literature is immeasurable, shaping how subsequent generations of writers approached their craft and how readers understood the purposes and possibilities of poetry.

For anyone seeking to understand English Romantic poetry, the development of modern literature, or simply hoping to find expression for their own experiences of nature and emotion, Wordsworth’s work remains essential. His best poems—”Tintern Abbey,” “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” the Lucy poems, and The Prelude—continue to move readers with their beauty, insight, and profound humanity.

As we face contemporary challenges including environmental crisis and the alienation of modern life, Wordsworth’s vision of humanity’s spiritual connection to nature and his celebration of simple, authentic human experience offer not just historical interest but practical wisdom. His life and work remind us that poetry matters, that nature sustains us, and that paying attention to our deepest feelings and experiences can lead to understanding and joy.

William Wordsworth died in 1850, but his poetry lives on, continuing to inspire, console, and challenge readers nearly two centuries after his death. His legacy ensures that he remains, as he hoped to be, not just a poet of his time but a poet for all time, speaking across generations about what it means to be human, to feel deeply, and to find meaning in the natural world and in our connections with one another.

FAQs About William Wordsworth

Q1: Who was William Wordsworth? William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 publication Lyrical Ballads. He is considered one of the greatest poets in the English language and served as Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death.

Q2: When and where was William Wordsworth born? Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland (now in Cumbria), in the Lake District of northwestern England. He died on April 23, 1850, at Rydal Mount, Westmorland.

Q3: What is William Wordsworth’s most famous work? Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads (1798), co-written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, his semi-autobiographical epic poem about the growth of a poet’s mind. Famous individual poems include “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (Daffodils), “Tintern Abbey,” and his Lucy poems.

Q4: What happened to Wordsworth’s parents? Wordsworth’s mother Ann died when he was eight years old in 1778. His father John died in 1783 when Wordsworth was thirteen, leaving him an orphan. He and his siblings were then raised by uncles.

Q5: Who was Dorothy Wordsworth? Dorothy Wordsworth was William’s younger sister and lifelong companion. She was also a poet and diarist whose detailed journals about nature and their walks in the countryside greatly influenced Wordsworth’s poetry. She lived with William and his wife Mary throughout their married life.

Q6: Did William Wordsworth have children? Yes, Wordsworth had a daughter Caroline (born 1792) with Annette Vallon in France, whom he supported financially but did not raise. With his wife Mary Hutchinson, whom he married in 1802, he had five children, though two died in childhood and his daughter Dora died in 1847 at age 42.

Q7: What is the significance of Lyrical Ballads? Lyrical Ballads (1798) was revolutionary because it used everyday language to write about common people and ordinary experiences, breaking from the formal poetic diction of 18th-century verse. The preface to the second edition outlined principles that essentially changed English-language literature and launched the Romantic movement.

Q8: When did Wordsworth become Poet Laureate? Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1843 following the death of Robert Southey. He initially refused the honor due to