William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

1. 1770-1850

   • Well-off family but orphaned by 13
     • Rendered homeless, reliant on relatives
   • Lake District key part of youth
     • Fed into his poetry
   • Entered Cambridge at 19
     • French Rev. occurred soon after
       • Heralded a new era in society
       • Formative influence
       • Visited France during Rev.; in Paris during September massacres
         • Witnessed celebrations & violence
         • Had an affair & child with a Frenchwoman
   • Began writing political rhetoric in 1793
     • Remained unpublished to avoid arrest
     • Moved to poetry as a revolutionary form

2. Friends & family

   • Sister Dorothy
     • Constant companion, close bond
     • Took notes for his poetry
   • Coleridge
     • Became close friends in 1795
     • Lyrical Ballads
       • Composed between 1797-8
         • Important era for Romanticism
         • In Somerset
           • The friends wanted to be close
       • Withdrawal from political action
         • Depiction of the common life
       • Considered experiments

3. Poetic features

   • Attitudes:
     • Introspection
     • Contemplation
   • Specific detailing of real places
   • Deeply hidden politics
     • Nature healing political strife
   • Themes:
     • Memory
     • Nostalgia
     • Recapturing childhood innocence
   • Pastoral imagery

4. The Two-Part Prelude

   • 1799
   • Begun in Germany, 1798
   • Expansion on previous text of 1798
     • Proto-existentialist
     • Relies on anecdotal style & blank verse
     • Product of bourgeois era & Enlightenment
       • Humanist?
   • Biographical document
     • Depiction of own childhood
       • Key part of spiritual development
     • Tradition of epic form