William Wordsworth

Born 7 April 1770

Cockermouth, England

Died 23 April 1850 (aged 80)

Rydal, England

Resting Place St Oswald's Church, Grasmere

Occupation poet

Alma mater Hawkshead Grammar School,

Cumbria, England
St John's College,
Cambridge, England

Literary period Romantic

Genre Romantic poetry

Romantic literature

Spouse Mary Hutchinson

Introduction

William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet, best known for Lyrical Ballads,
which he wrote with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He and Coleridge helped to launch the
Romantic Age in English literature. Wordsworth is best known for The Prelude, which is a
semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of
times.

Childhood and early life

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, England. William's

sister, the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, to whom he was close all his life, was born
the following year, and the two were baptised together. He was the second of the five
children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. He lost his mother when he was 7 and
his father when he was 13.

Education

William Wordsworth received his early education at home under the guidance of his
mother, Ann Cookson. She taught him to read and instilled in him a love for literature and
nature. Wordsworth's father, John Wordsworth, also played a role in his education,
especially in imparting a knowledge of the classics.
Personal life

In November 1791, Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France. He fell in love with a

French woman, Annette Vallon, who, in 1792, gave birth to their daughter Caroline. Financial
problems and Britain's tense relations with France forced him to return to England alone the
following year. The outbreak of armed hostilities between Britain and France prevented him
from seeing Annette and his daughter for some years.

Death

William Wordsworth died at home at Rydal Mount from an aggravated case of

pleurisy on 23 April 1850. He was buried at St Oswald's Church, Grasmere. His widow,
Mary, published his lengthy autobiographical "Poem to Coleridge" as The Prelude several
months after his death. Though it failed to interest people at the time, it has since come to be
widely recognised as his masterpiece.

Notable works

1. Lyrical Ballads
2. Tintern Abbey
3. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
4. The Prelude
5. The Lucy Poems
6. The Solitary Reaper