In 1797, the Romantic Movement in English literature assumed its definite shape. William Wordsworth was among the founding members and the most significant figure of Romanticism in English Literature. He is recognized as a spiritual poet who has epistemological thought. He was the poet who focused on the relationship of humans to nature. He advocated the use of ordinary and everyday vocabulary and speech pattern poetry.
He started writing poetry when he was in grammar school. He went on a tour of Europe before graduation; this tour developed his affection for nature and compassion for an ordinary man. Nature and common man are the main themes of his poetry. Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and T.S Coleridge is marked as the founding stone of Romanticism. Moreover, his poem, “The Prelude,” is one of his best poems, relating the “growth of a poet’s mind.”
A Short Biography of William Wordsworth
Early Life
William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland, England, on 7th April 1770. At the age of 7, his mother died. Following the death of his mother, his father also died when he was 13 years old. Though he had lost a significant part of his life, he continued to perform well at the Hawkshead Grammar School. At Grammar School, he wrote his first poetry. After graduating from school, he went to Cambridge University for higher studies; however, he could not outshine and managed to graduate in 1791.
In 1790, during the French Revolution, Wordsworth visited France and supported the ideals of the new republican government. In 1791, on his return trip to France, he met Annette Vallon and fell in love with her. However, both were separated due to the declaration of war between the French and English in 1973. Wondering in England without any job, he was greatly influenced by activists like William Godwin.
William Wordsworth as a Poet
Wordsworth received an inheritance in 1975 that made him live with his sister. In the same year, Wordsworth came across Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and they became good friends. They started working together on the most famous work of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, that was then published in 1798. The volume was composed of the poems “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge and “Tintern Abbey” by Wordsworth.
Wordsworth also started writing The Prelude in 1798. The work is an auto-biological epic poem that he revised throughout his life. When he was working on The Prelude, he also wrote the poem “Lucy” and preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. In the preface, he explained what poetry really is and said that it is “spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling and emotion, recollected in tranquility.” This preface was considered as the declaration of Romantic principles.
In 1802, the war between France and England had been stopped temporarily, and Wordsworth got a chance to see his beloved Vallon and their daughter, Caroline. When he returned to England, he married Mary Hutchinson. In 1803, their first child was born. Meanwhile, he was also writing poetry. The poetry he wrote in this time includes “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.” These poems published the collection of Two Volumes in 1807.
Between the years 1782 to 1808, Wordsworth wrote an immense number of poems, even the most touching that mourn the death of his two children. During this period, his creativity had reached a peak. The work that Wordsworth produced during this period made him one of the most acclaimed poets.
Developing Poetry, Philosophy, and Death
As Wordsworth was growing old, he started rejecting radicalism. In 1813, he was titled as “a distributor of stamps.” He moved with his family to a new place in the Lake District in the same years. In 1818, he started supporting the conservative Tories very enthusiastically.
Wordsworth became the poet laureate of England in 1843. He held this position until his death. He died at the age of 80, on 23rd April 1850.
William Wordsworth’s Writing Style
The poetry Wordsworth has two fundamental features. These features are clearly outlined in his preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. The first and important feature is the use of common language, as Wordsworth says, “the language really used by men.”
His poetry was treated differently by the contemporary readers and critics as the diction employed by Wordsworth in his poem resembles that of the rough, illiterate peasants and villagers whom Wordsworth admired a lot. Before understating the distinctive characteristics of Wordsworth poetry, one must consider the poetic conventions before Romanticism; the poetry of the 18th century uses high dictionary words with complex syntax.
Looking at the poetry of Wordsworth from this angle, his poetry has uncomplicated syntax, direct phrasing, and little illusion. For example, in the poem Daffodils, this aspect of his poetry is very obvious. The poem has an uncomplicated syntax and easy diction that readers, instead of reading, start singing it.
Wordsworth poetry is preoccupied with emotions. This is the second most important characteristic of his poetry that he discussed in his preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. According to Wordsworth, poetry is “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and emotions, recollected in tranquility.”
According to him, the job of a poet is to examine his own self to recollect the powerful feelings of his life. These recollections include inspirational thoughts and events in his life that have greatly influenced him. Once these emotions are recollected, he then reorganizes them. The recollection of emotions is the most observable feature of the poetry of Wordsworth. His poetry is a result of the ordinary but moving thought.
One of the best examples of his sentimental poetry is his sonnet, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge.” In the sonnet, the narrator is an admirer of nature and looks out at the busy industrial city of London to watch for the arresting beauty.
The unique styles of Wordsworth poetry are noticeable in his two most important works: Lyrical Ballads and The prelude. He wrote these two works in collaboration with S. T. Coleridge. These two works characterize the early style of young Wordsworth and the more advanced style of old Wordsworth. The style of Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads is very emotional and contains natural scenes, whereas, in the epic The Prelude, his verses are composed of more ponderous and exhaustive thoughts on life and his relation to it.
His late poetry is also didactic, as he tried to instruct his readers. Though Keats’s style becomes a little complicated in his later poetry, it is this work that became the most influential works in the English Literature after the death of William Wordsworth. His poems, particularly The Prelude, have been quoted by various poets of the Victorian Era, including Tennyson. The opening verse of the epic poem The Prelude is the best example of his style.
Wordsworth style has been a debatable topic for many critics. To some critics, Wordsworth has two styles, as mentioned above, while some believed that he has more than two styles, whereas some say that he does not have any style at all.
Keats did not use any “conceits” and “inane phraseology” in his poetry and devoted himself to free the poetry from such complications. Lytton Strachey says that the first poet who completely documented and intentionally accomplished the splendors of intense straightforwardness is William Wordsworth and this characteristic of his poetry that claims his fame. There is hardly any reader who cannot notice the beauty of his simplicity in his poetry.
Though the style of Wordsworth is nobly plain, it also has some unique and unparalleled features. The subject of his poetry has profound sincerity and natural character, and Wordsworth himself experiences his subject profoundly. His poetry has elevated expression. For example, in the poem “Resolution and Independence,” he uses an elevated expression to catch the attention of his audience.
Wordsworth would prefer to use an ascetic and unostentatious style in his poems. The power and completeness of this style require a more mature and considerate reader to appreciate. However, on many occasions, the simplicity of Wordsworth poetry declines to triviality. Though most of the time, the simplicity of Wordsworth poetry remains successful, some of his poetry contains plainness that has been called the bleat, the old, half-intelligent sheep. A strange inequality is created in the poetry of Wordsworth, which has been discussed by every critic.
His poetry lacks a sense of humor. This lack is responsible for the triviality in his poetry. The reason for the lack of humor is his blend of grandeur and immaturity in his poetic theory. Though he claims to use simple ordinary language, he also portrays coloring imagery in his poetry.
Luckily the splendid imagination of William Wordsworth was repeatedly excessively influential for his principle, and he unintentionally overlooks it completely in his best works.