William Wordsworth Biography

William Wordworth was one of the great Romantic poets of 19th-century England. His poems celebrated the glories of nature and the human spirit while using the simple language of the “common man” — a radical idea for the time. Wordsworth studied at Cambridge University and then traveled in France during the Revolution, an experience which affected deeply his own political leanings. On his return to England he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and in 1798 they published the collection Lyrical Ballads. It included both Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,” a rumination on man and nature inspired by the “steep and lofty cliffs” and “pastoral farms” around the stone ruins of the ancient church. Critics hooted at Wordworth’s poems and his politics early in his career, but in later years he became accepted as a key voice in the Romantic movement. His other works include Poems in Two Volumes (1807) and The Excursion (1814). He was poet laureate of England from 1843 until his death in 1850. His autobiographical epic, “The Prelude,” was published by his wife after his death.