William Wordsworth 1770 - 1850

"Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished." (From 'Letter to Lady Beaumont,' 1807).

William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth in the Lake District and his father John Wordsworth was Sir James Lowther's attorney. Wordsworth House in Cockermouth is open to the public for viewing.


For a short time he went to school in Cockermouth, where one of the pupils was Fletcher Christian, the mutineer from the Captain Bligh's ship, The Bounty. Later he would attend school in Penrith, his mother's home town. William was taught a love of the countryside whilst also learning parts of Milton and Shakespeare by heart.

William's mother, Ann died when he was 8 and his father, 5 years later. With the domestic problems in his young life he was to be separated from his sister Dorothy but later on in life, they would be close once again. After his mother's death Dorothy went to live with relations in Yorkshire, while William and his brothers were sent away to school in Hawkshead. William and his brothers boarded with Ann Tyson, who looked after them with great love and affection.

He loved the area and the landscape deeply affected Wordsworth's imagination and gave him a love of nature. When he was 13 his father died, and various uncles looked after Wordsworth. His siblings returned to live with the relations in Penrith.

In 1787 he entered into St. John's College, Cambridge, returning home to Hawkshead for his holidays and staying with Ann Dyson. There is very little detail to mention of his days at St. John's College, Cambridge, but he took his B.A. in 1791.

During a summer vacation in 1790, Wordsworth went on a walking tour through revolutionary France and also travelled in Switzerland. On his second journey to France, Wordsworth had an affair with a French girl, Agnate Vallon, a daughter of a barber-surgeon, by whom he had a illegitimate daughter, Anne Caroline. The affair was the inspiration for the poem 'Vaudracour and Julia.'. After his journeys, Wordsworth had a number of unhappy years.

In 1795 he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy lived in Racedown, Somerset, then later on in Alfoxden, to be nearer Coleridge. Encouraged by Coleridge and stimulated by the close contact with nature, Wordsworth composed his first masterwork, Lyrical Ballads, which opened with Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner.'In about 1798 he started to write large and philosophical autobiographical poetry, completed in 1805, and published posthumously in 1850 under the title THE PRELUDE. The long work described the poet's love of nature and his own place in the world order.

"Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society."
Wordsworth spent the winter of 1798-1799 with Dorothy and Coleridge in Germany, where he wrote several poems, including the 'Lucy' poems. On arrival back from Germany in 1799, William and Dorothy decided to return to the Lake District, Hawkshead for the first time in 10 years. They spent one night in Hawkshead before moving onto Grasmere. In December 1799, William and Dorothy moved into a small cottage at Town End [Dove Cottage], Grasmere and lived here for 8 years.

It was here that he produced some of his best works and also Dorothy wrote her Grasmere Journal [1800-1803].

In 1802 William married Mary Hutchinson and 3 of his children were born here in Dove Cottage. Dorothy continued to live with them. When Mary was expecting their fourth child, the cottage was becoming too small, so they moved, first to Allan Bank and the Vicarage in Grasmere before moving to his last home at Rydall Mount in 1813. He was appointed official distributor of stamps for Westmorland and became a patriotic, conservative public man, abandoning his radical faith. In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southgey (1774-1843) as England's poet laureate.

William Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850.

His second verse collection, "Poems in Two Volumes", appeared in 1807. In the same year, Thomas de Quincey met Wordsworth for the first time and wrote about him and other Lake Poets in several essays.

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