William Wordsworth: A Biography

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the life of William Wordsworth, born in England in 1770 and considered to be one of the original romantic poets. It reviews some of most famous pieces of work with an emphasis on how he saw beauty in every form of nature. It looks at how the characters that appear in his poetry are solitary and how Wordsworth himself was a solitary person, happiest alone only with Nature. Wordsworth believed that nature was the most powerful thing that could teach people about life and how to fulfill one's life with happiness and wealth. It assesses his friendships with a new generation of writers like John Stuart Mill and the Brownings' Robert and Elizabeth Barrett and the influence on his life of good friends such as Beaumont, Scott, Coleridge, Charles Lamb and Robert Jones.

From the Paper:

"Though co-writing did not produce any mutually agreeable results, in 1798 the two poets published Lyrical Ballads as a collaborative effort. The work got mixed reviews. While publishing the second edition of the same work, the poets disagreed on who should get the major credit. Wordsworth was also simultaneously working on The Prelude (which was not published until after his death). The third edition of Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth, 1798) was published in 1802. At the same time, Wordsworth and his siblings came into inheritance owed them by their father's employer. The war also ended; and, William could travel to meet his daughter Caroline, though this trip marked the end of his relationship with Annette. In October 4, 1802, Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson. In 1803, Wordsworth's first child of five (with Mary) was born. He also began forming friendships with well-known men of the time: Sir Walter Scott, Sir George Beaumont, and Robert Southey. In 1804, he published Ode: Intimations of Immortality (Wordsworth, 1919), and some more work on The Prelude (Wordsworth, 1986)."

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