William Wordsworth

Life
William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland (now called Cumbria) in the English Lake District in 1770. He was educated
at St John's College, Cambridge, and in 1790 he went on a walking tour of France and the Alps. The imagery of walking
often recurs in his major poems and tells us a lot about his concept of imaginative experience and of the nature of poetry
itself. He supported the democratic ideals of revolutionary France, and in 1791 he returned to France and fell in love with
Annette Vallon, who bore him a daughter, Caroline. However, the declaration of war between England and France in
1793 forced Wordsworth to leave France and brought him to the edge of a nervous breakdown. The despair and
disillusionment of these years were healed by reconnecting with nature. In 1795 he received an inheritance and moved
to Dorset with his sister Dorothy. She remained his most faithful friend and constantly supported his work. She copied
down his poems and recorded their life in her Journals, which provide insight into the experiences that generated
Wordsworth's poetry. In that same year, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Their friendship proved crucial to the
development of English Romantic poetry. Together they worked on a collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads, which
appeared anonymously in 1798. The second edition of 1800 also contained Wordsworth's famous 'Preface', which was to
become the Manifesto of English Romanticism. In 1799 William and Dorothy settled in the Lake District, and in 1802
William married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. She bore him five children. In 1805 he finished his masterpiece,
The Prelude, a long autobiographical poem in fourteen books. It was subtitled 'Growth of a Poet's Mind' and was
published only after his death. As he grew older, Wordsworth rejected the radical political ideas of his youth and became
a supporter of the conservative Tories. His reputation as a poet grew steadily, and in 1843 he was made Poet Laureate.
He died in 1850.

Man and Nature

Wordsworth was interested in the relationship between the natural world and the human consciousness. In his poetry,
there is not a precise and objective observation of natural phenomena but rather a detailed account of the interaction
between man and nature, and of the emotions and sensations that arise from this contact. When a natural object is
described, the main focus of interest is actually the poet's response to that object. Wordsworth firmly believed that man
and nature are inseparable. Man exists not outside the natural world but as an active participant in it, so that 'nature' to
Wordsworth meant something that includes both inanimate and human nature, each being part of the same whole.
Nature comforts man in sorrow. It is a source of pleasure and joy. It teaches man to love and to act in a moral way. It is
the seat of the divine spirit of the universe.

The importance of memory

For Wordsworth, memory was a major force in the development of the poet's mind and moral character. It is memory
that gives life to poetry through the process of recollection. In the 'Preface' to Lyrical Ballads, ·wordsworth states that all
genuine poetry 'takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity'. Thus the poem is the result of the active
relationship of the present to past experience. The whole process can be described as follows:

Object➡️Poet’s sensory experience➡️Emotion➡️Kindred emotion➡️memory=recollection in tranquillity➡️

➡️Poem➡️Reader➡️Emotion

Through the re-creative power of memory, an emotion is reproduced and purified in poetic form so that a second
emotion, one 'kindred' or similar to the first one, is generated. It is in this mood that successful composition takes place
and is communicated to the reader.
The importance of the senses
Nature also means the world of sensory perceptions. Wordsworth had great sensibility of the eye and ear, through which
he could perceive both the “beauteous forms” of nature and the sounds of the wind or water, or the silence of secluded
places. Sensations lead to simple thoughts, which later combine into complex and organised ideas.

Who is the poet?

For Wordsworth, the poet is a man speaking to other men, but he has a more lively sensibility and the ability to see into
the heart of things. The power of imagination enables him to communicate his knowledge, so he becomes a teacher who
shows men how to understand their feelings and improve their moral being. His task is to draw attention to the ordinary
things in life, to the humblest people, where the deepest emotions and truths are to be found.