William Wordsworth
Argued that poetry is 'the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings' recollected in tranquility.
Biography
Wordsworth began as a political radical, sympathetic to the French Revolution, and gradually moved toward conservatism as he aged. The trajectory matters because his poetry changes with his politics.
He spent most of his life in the Lake District, walking daily and composing verse in his head. The Prelude, his long autobiographical poem, was revised throughout his life and published posthumously.
Writing Style
- Ordinary language — 'the real language of men' — deliberately rejecting the elevated diction of eighteenth-century verse.
- The lyric of memory: the experience is often less important than the later replaying of it.
- Nature as both subject and teacher, never just background.
- Long blank-verse lines in his larger works; tight lyric forms in his shorter poems.
Influence & Legacy
Founded English Romanticism's commitment to the personal and the natural. Without Wordsworth, there is no modern lyric as we know it — every poet who writes a poem about a walk in the country is in his debt.
Famous Poems
Other England Poets
About This Entry
This is a brief, opinionated introduction to William Wordsworth — not a comprehensive biography. For detailed scholarship, consult the volumes listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or the relevant collections of letters and criticism. The goal here is to give you enough context to read the poems with fresh eyes.