411 REFERENCE · Wikibooks
William Wordsworth We are Seven/Timeline of William Wordsworth' Life
Reference material by Wikibooks contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
William Wordsworth
(7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850)
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770
He was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English Literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads
Wordsworth masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude
Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death
Early Life
He is the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson
Wordsworth father rarely taught him poetry including that of Milton, Shakespeare, and Spenser
After the death of their mother in 1778 John Wordsworth sent William to Hawkshead Grammar School in Lancashire
He had already learnt to read and write in a small school in Cockermouth when his mother was alive
It was at the school that Wordsworth was to meet Mary who would be his future wife
First Publication and Lyrical Ballad
The year 1793 saw Wordsworth's first published poetry with the collection "An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches"
He received a legacy of 900 pounds from Raisley Calvert in 1795 so that he could pursue writing poetry
That year, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship
Together they produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), an important work in the English Romantic movement
Wordsworth's most famous poem "Tintern Abbey" was published in the work, along with Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
The Poet Laureate and other honours
Wordsworth receives an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree from Durham University and the same honour from Oxford University
The government awarded him a civil list pension amounting to 300 pounds a year
With the death of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour but later agreed
When his daughter, Dora died, his production of poetry came to a standstill
William Wordsworth's Death
He died worsening a case of pleurisy on 23 April 1850 and was buried at St. Oswald's church in Grasmere.
His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical "Poem to Coleridge" as The Prelude several months after his death.
Though this failed to arouse great interest in 1850, it has since come to be recognized as his masterpiece
Poems by Williams Wordsworth
Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey (1798)
She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways(1798)
The Prelude(1798)
Tables Turned(1798)
Lines Written In Early Spring(1798)
Lucy Gray(1799)
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge(1802)
The World Is Too Much with Us(1802)
Daffodils (I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud)(1804)