William Wordsworth

Wordsworth was born in Cumberland, in the Lake District, where he spent his childhood and he was in contact with nature. He lost his mother when he was 8 and his father when he was 13. He had three brothers and a sister, Dorothy, who was his closest friend during his life. He was educated first at the Grammar School and then at St. Johns College, in Cambridge, where he graduated in 1791. That same year he went to France, where he became a supporter of the French Revolution. While in France, he had a love affair with Annette Vallon. He probably meant to marry her but her family wasnt very happy because he didnt have enough money and he return to England. In 1793 the war between England and France broke out, so he couldnt return to France and rejoin Annette. In 1795 he met Samuel Coleridge, who became his friend; they shared the same love for nature and used to talk about poetry and take long walks. It was during one of these walks that they planned the structure of the Lyrical Ballads. In 1798-99 they spent some months in Germany and, when they came back, William and his sister settled at Dove Cottage, in the Lake District. In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend and they had five children. He spent all his life writing poetry, free from financial preoccupations because he received a substantial legacy from a friend. He gradually turned to political and religious conservatism, rejecting his previous republican and liberal sympathies. In 1843 he was appointed Poet Laureate and in 1850 he died.

Wordsworths Works
-His Masterpiece: Lyrical Ballads, written in cooperation with Coleridge. The volume was first published anonymously and then the second edition had a long Preface by W., considered the manifesto of English Romanticism. The genesis of Lyrical ballads was described by C. in his Biographia Literaria. They agreed a division of labour: C. wanted to write about supernatural, while W. wrote about everyday life in countryside. W. tried to do what he had already done in the first part of The Prelude and Excursions to reconcile poetry and realism. In fact, realism was normally confined to prose and poetry was seen as an imitation. Wordsworth was the first: -to draw inspiration from everyday life. -to write in a language as near as possible to the spoken English. -Prelude: poems in 14 books, its an autobiographical poem. -Excursions: poems in 9 books, he was only a part about God, nature and man (philosophical poems). -Miscellaneous poems: divided in conversations, lyrical, reflecting, elegiac poems, sonnets and odes. Most of the miscellaneous poems are included in the Lyrical Ballads.

Nature
The two main themes of Wordsworths poetry are nature and childhood. He believed that man and nature were different but inseparable parts of the same universe, a total scheme created by God. He thought that Nature was not a decorative background (as with the Augustans) or the mirror of a particular mood but she was endowed with a spirit and a life of her own. She was therefore a living presence speaking to all those who were able to enter into intimate relationship with her and understand her language. So, through Nature man could rediscover the image of God (because shes the direct manifestation of God). The mission of the poet was to open mens soul to the reality of Nature and to the calm, meditative joy she can offer us.