William Wordaworth Biography and Personal Life

          I. Biography and Personal Life

1. William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770.
2. He was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England.
3. His birthplace is located in the Lake District, a region that profoundly influenced his poetry.
4. His father was John Wordsworth, a legal representative for Lord Lonsdale.
5. His mother was Anne Cookson.
6. Wordsworth’s mother died in 1778 when he was only 8 years old.
7. His father passed away in 1783 when William was 13.
8. He had a very close relationship with his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth.
9. Dorothy was a constant companion and a major inspiration for his work.
10. He attended Hawkshead Grammar School starting in 1779.
11. He entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1787.
12. He graduated from Cambridge in 1791.
13. During his summer vacation in 1790, he went on a walking tour of France, Switzerland, and Italy.
14. He visited France a second time in 1791, staying until late 1792.
15. In France, he fell in love with Annette Vallon.
16. He and Annette had a daughter named Caroline.
17. Financial difficulties and the outbreak of war between England and France forced him to return home, leaving Annette and Caroline behind.
18. He met his daughter Caroline for the first time 9 years later during a visit to France.
19. He was initially a staunch supporter of the French Revolution.
20. He was inspired by the revolutionary ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
21. He became disillusioned with the Revolution during the Reign of Terror.
22. In 1795, he received a legacy of 900 pounds from his friend Raisley Calvert.
23. This financial legacy allowed him to devote his life entirely to poetry.
24. He met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1795, marking the start of a historic literary friendship.
25. He settled at Racedown in 1795 with Dorothy.
26. In 1797, they moved to Alfoxden House to be closer to Coleridge.
27. He married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend and cousin, in 1802.
28. He was appointed Distributor of Stamps for Westmoreland in 1813.
29. In 1843, he was appointed Poet Laureate of England.
30. He succeeded Robert Southey as Poet Laureate.
31. He died on April 23, 1850, at the age of 80.
32. The cause of his death was Pleurisy.
33. He is buried in St. Oswald’s Church, Grasmere.

II. Lyrical Ballads

34. Lyrical Ballads was first published in 1798.
35. It was a joint publication by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
36. The 1798 edition contained 23 poems.
37. Wordsworth contributed 19 poems to the first edition.
38. Coleridge contributed 4 poems.
39. The first poem in the collection is Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
40. The last poem in the collection is Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey".
41. The second edition was published in 1800.
42. The famous "Preface" was added to the 1800 edition.
43. The third edition appeared in 1802.
44. The "Appendix on Poetic Diction" was added in the 1802 edition.
45. The fourth and final edition was published in 1805.
46. The publication of Lyrical Ballads is considered the official start of the Romantic Movement in English literature.
47. Its full title is Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems.
48. It was first published in America in 1802.
49. Wordsworth's goal was to choose incidents from "humble and rustic life".
50. He aimed to use "a selection of language really used by men".

III. The Prelude

51. The Prelude is Wordsworth’s greatest philosophical and autobiographical work.
52. It is subtitled "Growth of a Poet's Mind".
53. It was dedicated to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
54. Wordsworth referred to it as "the poem to Coleridge" during his lifetime.
55. It was originally intended as an introduction to a massive work called The Recluse.
56. Writing began around 1798-1799.
57. The first version, completed in 1805, consisted of 13 books.
58. The final version, published posthumously in 1850, has 14 books.
59. It was titled and published by his widow, Mary Hutchinson.
60. It is written in blank verse.
61. The poem explores the influence of nature, childhood, and education on his development.
62. It includes his experiences during the French Revolution.

IV. Tintern Abbey

63. Full title: "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798".
64. It is the concluding poem of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads.
65. It is written in blank verse.
66. It is often described as a dramatic monologue.
67. Wordsworth visited the Wye Valley twice: in 1793 and 1798.
68. The poem records his intellectual and spiritual growth through nature.
69. He addresses his sister Dorothy as his "dearest Friend" at the end of the poem.
70. He famously calls nature the "Guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being".
71. He mentions the "still, sad music of humanity".
72. He describes a state of "blessed mood" where we "see into the life of things".

V. Immortality Ode

73. Full title: "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood".
74. Composed between 1802 and 1806.
75. It is an Irregular Pindaric Ode.
76. The poem is based on the Platonic concept of pre-existence.
77. It laments the loss of the "celestial light" or "visionary gleam" seen in childhood.
78. The child is famously described as a "Mighty Prophet! Seer Blest!".
79. It ends with a celebration of the "philosophic mind" that comes with maturity.
80. Famous line: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting".
81. The poem asserts that nature provides "thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears".

VI. Other Major Poems

82. "The Solitary Reaper" was inspired by a tour of Scotland in 1803.
83. The poem was not an actual experience but inspired by a book by Thomas Wilkinson.
84. The girl in the poem sings in Erse (Gaelic).
85. "Daffodils" (or "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud") was composed in 1804.
86. It describes a scene at Ullswater.
87. The "inward eye" mentioned in the poem refers to the power of memory and imagination.
88. The "Lucy Poems" are a series of five lyrics about an idealized, mysterious girl.
89. The Lucy poems include "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" and "A slumber did my spirit seal".
90. "Michael" (1800) is a "Pastoral Narrative Poem".
91. It tells the story of an old shepherd whose son, Luke, goes to the city and falls into vice.
92. "London, 1802" is a sonnet addressing John Milton.
93. Famous line from the sonnet: "Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour".
94. "The World is Too Much With Us" is a sonnet criticizing materialism.
95. "Ode to Duty" (1805) addresses duty as the "Stern Daughter of the Voice of God".
96. "Resolution and Independence" (also known as "The Leech Gatherer") records an encounter on the moors.
97. "My Heart Leaps Up" (or "The Rainbow") contains the line "The Child is father of the Man".
98. "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" (1802) praises the beauty of London in the early morning.
99. "Laodamia" (1815) is a narrative poem based on classical mythology.
100. "The Excursion" (1814) is a long philosophical poem in nine books.
101. "Peter Bell" (1819) is a tale in verse about a potter’s transformation.
102. "The River Duddon" (1820) is a celebrated sonnet sequence.
103. "Ecclesiastical Sonnets" (1822) traces the history of the Christian Church in Britain.

VII. Literary Theory and Style

104. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings".
105. He added that poetry takes its origin from "emotion recollected in tranquillity".
106. He argued that a poet is a "man speaking to men".
107. He believed there is no essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.
108. He rejected the "gaudy and inane phraseology" of 18th-century poetry.
109. He advocated for the use of the language of common men.
110. He viewed nature as a Teacher, Mother, and Guardian.
111. Pantheism is the philosophical belief central to his nature poetry.
112. He distinguished between Imagination (creative power) and Fancy (associative power).
113. He believed that every great poet is a Teacher.
114. His poetry often focuses on the individual's internal experience.

VIII. Critical Reputation and Comments

115. Samuel Taylor Coleridge criticized Wordsworth’s theories of poetic diction in Biographia Literaria.
116. Robert Browning wrote the poem "The Lost Leader" as a critique of Wordsworth for becoming conservative and accepting the Laureateship.
117. Matthew Arnold called Wordsworth’s poetry the most important body of work after Shakespeare and Milton.
118. Arnold also noted Wordsworth’s "healing power".
119. John Keats described Wordsworth’s style as the "Egotistical Sublime".
120. Percy Bysshe Shelley called him a "moral eunuch" in his later years.
121. William Hazlitt called him the "High Priest of Nature".
122. Swinburne remarked that Wordsworth "had no style of his own" but spoke through nature.
123. Lowell called him a "historian of the soul".
124. J.C. Ransom called him a "Mountain of English Poetry".
125. He is often called the "Father of Romanticism".

IX. Key Literary Terms and Concepts

126. Romanticism: A movement emphasizing emotion, nature, and the individual.
127. Neoclassicism: The artificial, urban, and satirical style Wordsworth reacted against.
128. Lake Poets: A group comprising Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Robert Southey.
129. Poetic Diction: The specific language used in poetry, which Wordsworth sought to simplify.
130. Egotistical Sublime: Keats' term for a poet who uses his own personality as the primary subject.
131. Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter, used in The Prelude and Tintern Abbey.
132. Pastoral: Poetry dealing with rural life and shepherds (e.g., Michael).

X. Key Quotes for the Exam

133. "The Child is father of the Man." (My Heart Leaps Up).
134. "Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her." (Tintern Abbey).
135. "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." (The World is Too Much With Us).
136. "Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour." (London, 1802).
137. "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." (Immortality Ode).
138. "To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." (Immortality Ode).
139. "Ten thousand saw I at a glance, / Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." (Daffodils).
140. "The music in my heart I bore, / Long after it was heard no more." (The Solitary Reaper).
141. "Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!" (Ode to Duty).
142. "Plain living and high thinking are no more." (London, 1802).
143. "A violet by a mossy stone / Half hidden from the eye!" (She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways).
144. "Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned." (Sonnet on the Sonnet).
145. "The still, sad music of humanity." (Tintern Abbey).

XI. Lesser Known Works and Facts

146. "Guilt and Sorrow" (or "A Female Vagrant") was an early poem showing his social concerns.
147. "The Idiot Boy" is a poem in Lyrical Ballads about a mother's love for her disabled son.
148. "Simon Lee" is a poem about an old huntsman.
149. "The Thorn" is a controversial poem in Lyrical Ballads for its repetitive style.
150. "We Are Seven" features a dialogue between an adult and a child about death.
151. "The Tables Turned" contains the famous advice: "Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books".
152. "Expostulation and Reply" is the companion poem to "The Tables Turned".
153. "Nutting" is a poem that describes a boy’s "rape" of a hazel bower, showing a complex view of nature.
154. "Stepping Westward" was inspired by his 1803 Scottish tour.
155. "To the Cuckoo" addresses the bird as a "wandering voice".
156. "The Green Linnet" is another famous bird poem.
157. "Yarrow Unvisited", "Yarrow Visited", and "Yarrow Revisited" are poems inspired by the Scottish river.
158. "The White Doe of Rylstone" (1815) is a long narrative poem.
159. "Thanksgiving Ode" (1816) celebrates the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
160. "Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems" was published in 1835.
161. He received an Honorary Degree from Oxford University in 1839.
162. He wrote a poem titled "To a Skylark" in 1825, which differs from his 1805 poem of the same name.
163. He wrote over 500 sonnets in total.
164. The Recluse was meant to have three parts: The Prelude, The Excursion, and a third unfinished part.
165. "Home at Grasmere" was intended to be the first book of the first part of The Recluse.
166. "Elegiac Stanzas" (also known as "Peel Castle") was written after his brother's death.
167. His brother, John Wordsworth, died in a shipwreck in 1805.
168. "Character of the Happy Warrior" (1806) was inspired by both his brother John and Lord Nelson.
169. "Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room" is a sonnet defending the constraints of the sonnet form.
170. Wordsworth stayed in Goslar, Germany, during the winter of 1798-99.
171. Many of the Lucy poems were written during his stay in Germany.
172. He visited Ireland in 1829.
173. "The Old Cumberland Beggar" is a poem advocating for traditional forms of charity.
174. "Anecdote for Fathers" is a poem in Lyrical Ballads.
175. He was a "Distributor of Stamps" for nearly 30 years.
176. He lived at Rydal Mount from 1813 until his death.
177. He lived at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, from 1799 to 1808.
178. Thomas De Quincey was a famous contemporary and friend of Wordsworth.