Biography

William Wordsworth was born April 7th, 1770, the second chlid of John Wordsworth. He was sent to Hawkshead Grammar school in 1778, after the death of his mother. In 1787, he attended St. John's College in Cambridge and graduated in 1791. During this time he spent a vacation in France, where he encountered the French Revolution and supported the Republican movement.

After graduating, Wordsworth returned to France while touring Europe and met Annette Vallon, whom he immediately fell in love with. Though he had a child with her, he could not afford to bring his family to England. With the Reign of Terror occurring in France, he was unable to see Annette and Caroline, his daughter, for a number of years.

Through Wordsworth's early publications, he came to be seen as the embodiment of the Romantic style of writing. His preface to one of his early collections, Lyrical Ballads, is considered to be the theory of Romanticism as a whole. This collection, made with the help of Samuel Tyler Coleridge, became the basis of his widely-regarded authority on Romanticism. Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and Coleridge moved to Germany for a time, but Wordsworth's homesickness led to a deeper depression and he soon moved back to England.

In 1802 Wordsworth received the inheritance owed to him after his father's death. After his sister's visit to Annette in France, an agreement had been reached concerning his requirements to them, as he could not afford to marry and move them to England. In light of this, Wordsworth married childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. Dorothy lived with the new couple and their first of five children was born in 1803.

Wordsworth was awarded an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree from both Durham University and Oxford University. When Robert Southey died, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He was awarded a pension from the government at 300 pounds per year to allow him to continue writing. However, in 1847, his daughter Dora died, bringing his poetry output to a standstill.

William Wordsworth died in 1850 and was buried at St. Oswald's Church in Grasmere, England. In the aftermath of his death, his widow published his autobiographical work, originally titled "poem to Coleridge" but renamed as The Prelude as a reference to his never-finished opus The Recluse. Though not widely acclaimed at the time, more recently The Prelude has been regarded as a masterpiece.