William Wordsworth: Life, Poetry, and Legacy of the Romantic Poet

His mother died while he was only eight years old; six years later his father died too. He lost both parents at a very early age and was sent to relatives for bringing up. In between all these tussles, Wordsworth found comfort in reading books and developed a growing interest in poetry. His formal education took him to the Hawkshead Grammar School in England and then to St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he studied the classics; but it was the wildness of nature that built and formed his spirit more than anything.

Wordsworth would indeed come to leave England on this early tour-the one that was to change the course of his destiny completely. As he walked through Europe, the road drew him to France at that time when the heights of liberty, equality, and fraternity were so fresh and stimulating to the imagination. They fired him and made him a firm and almost zealous adherent of the revolutionary cause. It was in France that he met the beautiful Annette Vallon, and they spent a passionate time together, which given birth to a child named Caroline. But then financial woes and a growing political storm forced Wordsworth back to England and closed this chapter of his life, which would haunt him for years to come.

In a period of changing landscapes that would seriously affect his life during the 1790s, Wordsworth felt the pangs of disillusionment with the violent happenings in France and was retreating into Nature in search of eternal truth and comfort. Gaining a friend in Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with equally Romantic inclinations, sought further comfort in the joint production of Lyrical Ballads, which was destined to alter the very face of English literature. Published in 1798, the first clear statement of the onset of the Romantic Movement upheld by Wordsworth in his preface, and other than this, he advocated for the use of common language and linkage with the common events, saying that poetry ought to be “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

The life of Wordsworth emerged into some degree of normalcy, an uncertain normalcy however, as he sought refuge unto the Lakes with his sister Dorothy, whose delicate impressions of Nature and fidelity toward him became further stimulant sources of Wordworth’s inspiration. In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood acquaintance, and together they brought up five children. The later part of his life was shadowed by hardship, including the death of two of his children, but still, he never broke or waned in his creative spirit.

Later in Wordsworth’s life, the theme of going deeper into the themes of memory, mortality, and the passage of time would increasingly permeate his poetry. His paragon work, The Prelude, which happens to be an autobiography in blank verse, solidified this life pursuit of his-the connection of self and nature. In 1843 he was appointed Poet Laureate of England, a position in all likelihood well-deserved but one which he should have held long before.

Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850, at the age of eighty, and the world he left behind still survives today to nurture and to inspire multitude. Wordsworth’s words testify to Nature and Human Emotion that transcend time and resonate across the bridge between man and his world. To read Wordsworth is to walk with him through the green fields and still banks of his beloved Lakes District while feeling, if for but a moment, the faint thrum of the pulse of existence itself.

1. Synonymous – Closely associated with a particular quality or concept.
2. Overshadowed – To be covered or influenced by something larger or more dominant.
3. Tussles – Struggles or conflicts.
4. Adherent – A supporter or follower of a cause or belief.
5. Disillusionment – A feeling of disappointment when one discovers something is not as good as expected.
6. Inclinations – Natural tendencies or preferences.
7. Destined – Intended for a particular fate or purpose.
8. Advocated – Publicly recommended or supported.
9. Fidelity – Faithfulness and loyalty.
10. Stimulus – Something that provokes a response or inspires action.
11. Paragon – A perfect example of something.
12. Permeate – To spread or diffuse throughout.
13. Laureate – A person who has been honored for their achievements, especially in literature.
14. Transcend – To go beyond the limits or range of something.
15. Multitudes – Large numbers of people or things.