On this day in 1770, English literature changed forever.
William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland, England, to a modestly wealthy family, and was the second eldest of five children. Following his parents’ deaths by the age of 13, Wordsworth was sent to Hawkshead, a town at the heart of the Lake District. Much like Michelangelo’s first apprenticeship in Florence, Wordsworth’s studies among the sprawling, natural beauty of the English countryside ignited a passion in his heart which would later cement him as a Great of history.
Finding that academia did not fulfill him, he thus loafed away his time at Cambridge, after which he took a long holiday in France. There, he met a Frenchwoman, Annette Vallon, with whom he had a daughter. It was around 1775 when Wordsworth became friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, another “Great” of the English canon. The two produced a collection of poems titled Lyrical Ballads, which included one of Wordsworth’s most famous poems, “Tintern Abbey,” and Coleridge’s “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” Today, scholars mark Lyrical Ballads as a watershed moment in poetry, marking it as the beginning of the Romantic movement, a style of arts and literature focusing on themes of subjectivity, nature and emotions.
As many artists do at the end of their lives, Wordsworth faced hardships. During his service as Poet Laureate in 1847, his daughter Dora passed away, and in his grief, Wordsworth abandoned writing new material altogether.
He passed away in 1850 from pleurisy, bringing an end to the life of one of the most recognizable names in English literature.
Following his death, his widow, Mary, published The Prelude, an autobiographical poem that Wordsworth began when he was 28, worked on throughout his life, and died without publishing. It is a deeply personal piece that explores details of Wordsworth’s life and inspirations, similar to Alfred Tennyson’s “In Memoriam.” Generally, The Prelude is seen as Wordsworth’s magnum opus, given its intimacy with nature, spirituality and childhood— cornerstones of Romanticism, proving that Wordsworth was not only a pioneer of the movement but embodied it.
“But there’s a Tree, of many, one, / A single field which I have looked upon, / Both of them speak of something that is gone; / The Pansy at my feet / Doth the same tale repeat: / Whither is fled the visionary gleam? / Where is it now, the glory and the dream?” (Ode on Imitations of Immortality, 1807)
