William Wordsworth Biography

García Gabriel.
Parodi Roland.
Quintero José.

Agosto de 2020
Colegio Nuestra Señora de Nazareth
Barranquilla.
Inglés
 Introduction

This work shows the life and work of the American poet William Wordsworth, in it his most

representative works are exhibited.

This highlights the importance of poetry, which lies mainly in its ability to broaden horizons.

Reading poetry can help you understand the world better or explore new ways of saying things.

It is necessary to clarify that poetry is also a space of revolution. In this sense, many poets have

committed their time and have written to denounce injustices and sow a change of attitude in

others. Poetry also serves to learn the history of a people. Thanks to the glorious poems of

ancient civilizations, for example, we can come to understand how they lived and how they

approached fundamental aspects of life such as education or the art of war.

 William Wordsworth Biography

William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, in

Cockermouth, Cumberland, to John and Anne (Cookson)

Wordsworth, the second of their five children. His father

was law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale, and the

family was fairly well off. After his mother's death in 1778

he was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, near

Windermere; in 1787 he went up to St. John's College,

Cambridge. He enjoyed hiking: during the "long" (i.e.,

summer) vacation of 1788 he tramped around Cumberland

county; two years later went on a walking tour of France,

Switzerland, and Germany; and in 1791, after graduation, trekked through Wales.

His enthusiasm for the French Revolution took him to France again in 1791, where he had an

affair with Annette Vallon, who bore him an illegitimate daughter, Caroline, in 1792. Having run

out of money, Wordsworth returned to England the following year, and the Anglo-French war,

following the Reign of Terror, prevented his return for nine years.

In 1794 he was reunited with his sister Dorothy, who became his companion, close friend, moral

support, and housekeeper until her physical and mental decline in the 1830s. The next year he

met Coleridge, and the three of them grew very close, the two men meeting daily in 1797-98 to

talk about poetry and to plan Lyrical Ballads, which came out in 1798. The three friends

travelled to Germany that fall, a trip that produced intellectual stimulation for Coleridge and
homesickness for Wordsworth. After their return, William and Dorothy settled in his

beloved Lake district, near Grasmere.

The Peace of Amiens in 1802 allowed Wordsworth and his sister to visit France again to see

Annette and Caroline. They arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement, and a few months later,

after receiving an inheritance owed by Lord Lonsdale since John Wordsworth's death in 1783,

William married Mary Hutchinson. By 1810 they had five children, but their happiness was

tempered by the loss at sea of William's brother John (1805), the alienation from Coleridge in

1810, and the death of two children in 1812. In 1813 Wordsworth received an appointment as

Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the £400 per year which went with this post made

him financially secure. The whole family, which included Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount,

between Grasmere and Rydal Water).

Wordsworth's literary career began with Descriptive Sketches (1793) and reached an early climax

before the turn of the century, with Lyrical Ballads. His powers peaked with Poems in Two

Volumes (1807), and his reputation continued to grow; even his harshest reviewers recognized

his popularity and the originality.

The important later works were well under way. His success with shorter forms made him the

more eager to succeed with longer, specifically with a long, three-part "philosophical poem,

containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, having for its principal subject the sensations and

opinions of a poet living in retirement." The 17,000 lines which were eventually published made

up only a part of this mammoth project. The second section, The Excursion, was completed (pub.

1814), as was the first book of the first part, The Recluse. During his lifetime he refused to

print The Prelude, which he had completed by 1805, because he thought it was unprecedented
for a poet to talk as much about himself — unless he could put it in its proper setting, which was

as an introduction to the complete three-part Recluse.

Inspiration gradually failed him for this project, and he spent much of his later life revising The

Prelude. Critics quarrel about which version is better, the 1805 or the 1850, but agree that in

either case it is the most successful blank verse epic since Paradise Lost.

Finally fully reconciled to Coleridge, the two of them toured the Rhineland in 1828. Durham

University granted him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838, and Oxford conferred

the same honor the next year. When Robert Southey died in 1843, Wordsworth was named Poet

Laureate. He died in 1850, and his wife published the much-revised Prelude that summer.
 Most representative works

Wordsworth's most famous work, The Prelude (Edward Moxon, 1850), is considered by many to

be the crowning achievement of English romanticism. The poem, revised numerous times,

chronicles the spiritual life of the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although

Wordsworth worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously.

Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, travelling and continuing

his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter Dora in 1847, Wordsworth

seemingly lost his will to compose poems. William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April

23, 1850, leaving his wife Mary to publish The Prelude three months later.
 Most important work

These are considered his most important works:

 Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (Baladas líricas, 1798).

 Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (Baladas líricas, 1800).

 Poems, in Two Volumes (Poemas, en dos volúmenes, 1807)

 Memorials of a Tour in Scotland (1803), en la que destaca The Solitary Reaper.

 Elegiac Stanzas, suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, painted by Sir George

Beaumont (1805)

 The Excursion (La excursión, 1814)

 The Recluse, con su Prospectus

 Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series (1821), en la que destacan Mutability e Inside of King's

College Chapel, Cambridge

 The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind: Advertisement (1850, póstumo)

 Bibliography

http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html

https://poets.org/poet/william-wordsworth

https://elrincondelaliteraturasite.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/la-importancia-de-la-poesia/

https://importancias.com/poesia/#:~:text=La%20poes%C3%ADa%20sirve%20para%20entender,intentar

%20ponernos%20en%20su%20lugar.&text=La%20importancia%20de%20la%20poes%C3%ADa

%20reside%20en%20que%20gracias%20a,lenguaje%20de%20una%20forma%20libre.