

His political views underwent a transformation around the turn of the century, and he became increasingly conservative, disillusioned by events in France culminating in Napoleon Bonaparte‘s wars. Two of his children died, his brother was drowned at sea and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. The next few years were personally difficult for Wordsworth. Two year earlier in 1802, Wordsworth had married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Wordsworth’s most famous poem, ‘ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud‘ was written at Dove Cottage in 1804. After their return, William and Dorothy settled in his beloved Lake district, at Dove Cottage near Grasmere. The three friends travelled to Germany in fall 1799, a trip that produced intellectual stimulation for Coleridge and homesickness for Wordsworth.

Wordsworth – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, Kelton (circa 1897) I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud William Wordsworth’s House, Rydal Mount, by B. In Goslar, Wordsworth began working on his autobiographical poem, which later became known as The Prelude. The poems were greeted with hostility by most critics. In the same year they made a trip to Germany together with Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy. This collection of poems, mostly by Wordsworth but with Coleridge contributing ‘ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‘, is generally taken to mark the beginning of the Romantic movement in English poetry. It was there that Wordworth met Samuel Tailor Coleridge, who was an admirer of Wordsworth’s work, and the three of them grew very close, the two men meeting daily to talk about poetry and to plan Lyrical Ballads, which came out in 1798. In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. One year later, he was reunited with his sister Dorothy, who became his companion, close friend, moral support, and housekeeper until her physical and mental decline in the 1830s. In 1793, Wordsworth was able to publish his first collection of poems, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. – William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads (1798-1800), Preface. “I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

His turning away turned into opposition in 1798, when French troops conquered Switzerland, which Wordsworth valued, and Wordsworth became known for conservatism. However, he increasingly distanced himself from the aims of the revolution. Having run out of money, Wordsworth returned to England the following year, and the Anglo-French war, following the Reign of Terror, prevented his return for nine years. His enthusiasm for the French Revolution took him to France again in 1791, where he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who bore him an illegitimate daughter, Caroline, in 1792. In 1787, Wordsworth attended St John’s College, Cambridge, when he visited France at that time in the midst of revolutionary turmoil.

Responsibility for William and his brothers passed to his mother’s brother, Christopher Cookson, an unhappy arrangement for the children, who found their guardian unsympathetic. Soonafter, his father died in 1783, at which time Sir James owed him some £4000, but he refused to honour the debt. Wordsworth’s mother died in 1778, when he was sent as a boarder to Hawkshead Grammar School. Wordsworth’s father, although frequently away from home on business, encouraged him in his reading, and in particular set him to commit to memory large portions of poetry, including that of Milton, Shakespeare and Spenser in addition William was allowed to use his father’s library. William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland, the second of five children of John Wordsworth, who worked as an agent and rent collector for Sir James Lowther. Early Years – French Revolution and Conservativism – William Wordsworth, Expostulation and Reply, st. Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads. On April 7, 1770, major English Romantic poet William Wordsworth was born.
