Lives & Poems of Wordsworth,

Coleridge & Southey

Significance of the Lyrical Ballads

An Insight
 Lives & Poems of the Lake Poets

William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Robert Southey

(7 April 1770 – 23 April (21 October 1772 – 25 (12 August 1774 –
1850) July 1834) 21 March 1843)
 Wordsworth
• Family Background
• Born in Cockermouth, of a well-to-do family
• Attended Hawkshead Grammar School and completed
education at Cambridge University
• Influenced by his sister Dorothy Wordsworth
• Political views
• Romantic poetry was his answer to the industrial revolution
and he campaigned to keep the railways from destroying
the country he knew and loved
• Achievements
• Best-known poem is ‘The Daffodils’, much of his work was
far more serious and highly regarded, such as ‘The Prelude’
• Appointed the title of Poet Laureate but refused as he did
not wish to write to order.
• Style
William Wordsworth • Used his imaginative powers to idealize the familiar
(7 April 1770 – 23 April
1850)
 Coleridge
• Family Background
• Youngest child of the local vicar (priest)
• Studied at Cambridge
• Political Views
• Joined Southey to create pantisocracy
• Achievements
• Best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
and Kubla Khan, and prose work Biographia Literaria. His
critical work, especially on Shakespeare,
• Collaborated with Wordsworth on “Lyrical Ballads” during
his time in the Lake District.
• Challenges
• Coleridge’s life took a downward turn after his move to the
Lakes. His marriage failed and he began to take opium.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• (21
Style
October 1772 – 25
• Explored the philosophical aspects of poetry.
July 1834)
 Southey
• Family Background
• His father, Robert Southey, a linendraper,
• He matriculated at Oxford in 1972
• Political Views
• Share similar views with Coleridge
• Achievements
• Although his fame tends to be eclipsed by that of his
contemporaries and friends William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey's verse enjoys enduring
popularity.
• He was poet laureate from 1813 until his death in 1843,
when Wordsworth took the post.
• Southey wrote the children’s story of “The Three Bears”.
• Short poems and quasi-popular ballads reflecting a true
feeling for a rural folk were a staple of his output.
• Style Robert Southey
(12onAugust
• Southey's Romantic efforts centered 1774 –
travel and
adventure. 21 March 1843)
 The Lake Poets
• Origin of ‘The Lake Poets’
• Criticisms
• Based on Anti-social principals
• Use of ‘ordinary’ language and themes
• No such “school” of poetry
• Why are they called romantic poets?
• Fascination with the unusual and supernatural
• Active imagination and a strong sense of
perception
How did the 3 poets meet?

Neighbours Brother-in-laws
 Significance of Lyrical Ballads
• Lyrical: Links the poems with ancient rustic
bards and lends an air of spontaneity
• Ballads: Oral mode of storytelling
• Marked the beginning of the English Romantic
movement in literature
 Significance of Lyrical Ballads

“…written chiefly with a view to ascertain how

far the language of in the middle and lower
classes of society is adapted to the purposes
of poetic pleasure. (11. 7-10)”

Was Lyrical Ballads Revolutionary?

 References
• Poets Laureate of Great Britain. Available on:
http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/poets/poets.laureate.britain.htm
• A Web Of English History. Biography. Available on:
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/people/southey.htm
• Robert Southey Available on:
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Southey/bio.html
• How revolutionary Was Lyrical Ballads. Available on:
http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/viewFile/262/259