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William Wordsworth was a famous Romantic poet. His work became a source to spread the Romantic Movement, which emphasized the role of emotions and the beauty of Nature.Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland on 7 April 1770. His parents were John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. He was a second child to his parents amongst five children. His father was Sir James Lowther’s attorney, the 1st Earl of Lonsdale. His mother died when he was 8, and five years later, his father died too.He was very close to his younger sister Dorothy Wordsworth, who too became a famous poetess and diarist. His elder brother Richard Wordsworth became a lawyer, John, younger than Dorothy died in a ship wreck in 1805. The youngest one, Christopher became a scholar. William Wordsworth was very close to his sister, but he couldn’t stay in her company for long due to domestic problems after his father’s death.His early education was at a low level school at Cockermouth and was taught by his mother. He was taught poetry by his father. He taught him works of famous poets like Milton, Shakespeare, and Spenser. He was influenced from his child hood by his surroundings, which were picturesque. His father also allowed him to take benefit from his library. He also spent a lot of his time at his mother’s paternal home in Penrith.At Penrith, after his mother’s death he was sent to a school meant for the children of upper class. There he was taught by a lady Ann Birkett who used to teach her students the traditional and classical aspects of literature. This proved to be an important influence on his literary work.In 1787, he published his first sonnet in “The European Magazine”, starting his journey as a poet. In 1791, he went on summer vacations, visiting places famous for their picturesque beauty. These included Switzerland, France, Europe and Italy. In France he fell in love with a French girl named Annette Vallon, who bore him a baby girl in 1792. Due to critical circumstances he didn’t marry her, but kept on supporting her and her daughter throughout his life.French Revolution proved influential for his ideas and mental growth. He started understanding politics and its influences on common people, evoking sympathy for common people. After getting these experiences he composed his most remarkable poem “Descriptive Sketches”. Though, he calls his early work as “experimental”. His renowned poems include “An Evening Walk”, “Guilt And Sorrow”, “Lyrical Ballads” and “Tintern Abbey”. “Lyrical Ballads” was a joint venture of Wordsworth and S.T Coleridge, which was a result of their close friendship.Most of Wordsworth’s work emphasizes on depth and sensitivity of human nature. His “Lyrical Ballads” were regarded as “the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers”. His diction in all his poems is simple, and he dealt the subject with realism. His other famous poems are: “To The Cuckoo”, “The Rainbow”; “To a Butterfly”, “Ecclesiastical Sonnets”, and “The Prelude”. His poems in “Lyrical ballads Vein” project “the still, sad music of humanity”.In his later life, Wordsworth developed an estrangement with Coleridge. This deprived him of his powerful imaginative and mental sharpness, leaving him alone. In 1843 he got appointed as England’s poet laureate, and he died on April 23, 1850.
TOPIC : William Wordsworth  SOURCE : Linguistic Studies ** http://languages.forumactif.org/