William Wordsworth

1770-1850

Content:
• Wordsworth’s life
• Wordsworth’s works
• Nature prime inspiration
• The child and the poet
• What’s poetry
• The Daffodils
or I wandered Lonely as a Cloud

- Detailed Explanation
- Some exercises 1
• References
 William Wordsworth
• William Wordsworth was born on
April 7th, 1770 in Cumberland,
England, just on the border of the
region called Lake District.
• His father was fairly well off, so he
attended a grammar school and,
years later, graduated at Cambridge
University.
• He started reading poetry under the
suggestion of his father, but quite
soon his parents died: his mother
when he was eight years old and five
years later his father.
• He and his brothers and sister grew
up under their uncles’ guardianship
and he had to separate from his
brothers and, most sorrowful, from
his sister. 2
 William Wordsworth

• After his degree he went for a journey in France, where he

immediately sympathized with revolutionary ideas and …
• … with Annette Vallon, who bore him a child, a daughter.
• Quite soon he had to come back to his home land because he
was penniless.
• Then a war between England and France broke out and he
was not able to go back, as he had promised to do.
Furthermore he started growing more and more disillusioned
with the outcome of the French Revolution and became ever
increasingly conservative.
• He saw again Annette and his daughter, Caroline, only ten
years later, but he is believed to have done his best to support
them both all through his life.
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 William Wordsworth
• In 1797 he met Coleridge, who encouraged him to write
poetry.
• They got along so well together that together they
published the “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798.
• In 1798 he made a trip to Germany with Coleridge and
Dorothy.
• In 1802 he married a childhood friend, Mary
Hutchinson, and they had five children, but two of them
died very young.
• Luckily he was given a very good job in 1813 and this let
him devote totally to poetry.
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 William Wordsworth
• In the following (40) years he kept on writing
poetry, thus establishing himself as the most
important exponent of the Romantic English
poets.
• His inspiration gradually faded, as he was
getting wealth and honour, which was not so
consistent with the troubled, fashionable
figure of the romantic poet.
• He lived for the rest of his life in the Lake
District, “his dear native region” in close
contact with nature, which inspired him some
of his best known poems.
• In 1843 he was made poet laureate.
• In 1850 he died.
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 William Wordsworth

WORKS.
WORKS
• He is generally considered the most representative English
Romantic poet.
• He wrote
– Besides the “Lyrical Ballads” (1798, 1800, 1802)
– “An Evening Walk”, one of his first published poetry. (1793)
– “The Prelude”, a long narrative poem (written 1805, published
1850, posthumously)
– “Poems in two volumes” (1807) which included “Ode: Intimations
of Immortality.” one of the most famous poems in English
Literature
– The Excursion (1814)
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NATURE PRIME INSPIRATION

• Nature as countryside as opposed to life in town; the

countryside as Wordsworth sees it is rural, solitary,
impressive, uncontaminated, just as the Lake District
was. The “Solitary Reaper” and “The Daffodils” are
perfect samples of such nature-inspired poetry.
• Nature will bring and arouse feelings, even from small
things (such as the Daffodils) or trivial events.
• The description of Nature is mainly the description of
the poet’s response to landscapes, views, flowers, etc.
• Nature is also an active force, quite powerful and rather
mysterious. Nature is a direct expression of God,
sometimes God himself embodied.
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The child and the poet

• Childhood is seen as the original state of

pureness, not yet corrupted by adulthood,
so…
• …the child’s view of Nature is the
closest to truth as he is a better
interpreter of reality than the adult, who
can not feel “with Nature” anymore,
whereas the child still can. 8
 What’s poetry
• Wordsworth rejected the Augustan poetry, which was based
mainly on technique, golden rules, and attached little
importance to feelings, imagination and free creation.
• “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it
takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity”, it
portrays “incidents and situations from common life …; the
essential passion of the heart”.
• The function of poetry is to produce pleasure (aesthetic
pleasure)
• The poet will use “a certain colouring of imagination” and will
use “ a selection of language really used by men”, not any
poetic diction, purposely refined for poetry and poets.
• The poet is “a man speaking to men”, even if he lives apart in
order to cultivate his intense and peculiar communion with
nature.
• The poet - take Wordsworth as a Romantic poet- will also
accomplish the prophetical task to teach men to live according
to nature. 9
I wandered lonely as a cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and
hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the
breeze.
Continuous as the stars
that shine and twinkle on the Milky ForInoft, when on my couch I lie
Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly
dance.
…
The waves beside them danced;
but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in
glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little
thought
what wealth the show to me had
brought:
vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure
fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnyV2YWsto
I wandered lonely as a cloud
or The daffodils

As I was walking all alone like a cloud I wandered lonely as a cloud

which is swimming in the sky over the That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
valleys and the hills, When all at once I saw a crowd,
I suddenly saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils;
A big group of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Beside the lake, under the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Moving like a wave (blown by the
wind) and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars
that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,
In a continuous line/strip like the stars They stretched in never-ending line
that shine intermittently on the Milky along the margin of a bay:
Way, Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
They were displayed in a never-ending tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
line
along the margin of the shore of a lake:
I saw ten thousand at first sight,
pushing their heads above the other
ones as if they were dancing.

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I wandered lonely as a cloud
or The Daffodils
…
The waves (of grass) beside them danced;
but they
seemed more delighted than those shining
waves:
A poet must be glad,
in such a happy company:
I looked - and looked - but I realized that
little wealth the show had brought to me:
But often, when I lie on my sofa
thoughtless or worried,
They flash upon that internal feeling
Which is the perfect happiness of solitude;
And then my heart fills with pleasure,
And dances with the daffodils.
…
The waves beside them danced;
but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in
glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little
thought
what wealth the show to me
had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward
eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with
pleasure fills,
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And dances with the daffodils.
 Thanks to:

• http://www.nlu.edu/~eller/men/focus/lyricals/co
llab.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordswor
th
• http://www.island-of-
freedom.com/WORDSWOR.HTM
• http://it.youtube.com/watch?
v=mQnyV2YWsto&feature=related
• http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9-tEbv75E

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