Before Reading Meet William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

William Wordsworth, along with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the English Romantic movement in literature. Rebelling against the formal diction and lofty subject matter favored by poets of the day, Wordsworth used simple language to celebrate subjects drawn mostly from nature and everyday life.

Childhood TurmoilAs a child, Wordsworth spent many happy hours exploring the countryside in northwestern England’s Lake District. This idyllic period lasted until he was 7, when his mother’s death led to the breakup of the Wordsworth household. Unable to raise five children on his own, John Wordsworth sent young William away to school at Hawkshead, where he formed a passionate attachment to the surrounding countryside.

Creative PartnershipWordsworth’s bleak mood subsided in 1795 when he was reunited with his beloved sister Dorothy, from whom he had been separated since childhood. Resolving not to be parted again, he and Dorothy moved to Racedown, Dorset, where they met and grew close to Coleridge. Speaking later of this friendship, Wordsworth would say, “We were three persons with one soul.” Working together, Wordsworth and Coleridge produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), the book that ushered in the English Romantic movement.

Britain’s Poet LaureateIn 1799, Wordsworth and his sister resettled in the Lake District, with Coleridge residing nearby. Three years later, Wordsworth married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Over the next two decades, he struggled to find readers and critical acceptance for his work. In the 1820s, his reputation gradually improved, and by the 1830s, he was hugely popular. In 1843, his immense achievement as a poet was recognized with the poet laureateship.

While Reading

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1116