William Wordsworth We are Seven/Biography

Biography

(7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850)

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770
He was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Colleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English Literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads
Wordsworth masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude
Wordsworth was a Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death

He is the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cockson
Wordsworth father rarely taught him poetry including that of Milton, Shakespeare, and Spenser
After the death of their mother in 1778 John Wordsworth sent William to Hawkshead Grammar School in Lancashire
He had already learnt to read and write in a small school in Cockermouth when his mother was alive
It was at the school that Wordsworth was to meet Mary who would be his future wife

The year 1793 saw Wordsworth's first published poetry with the collection "An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches"
He received a legacy of 900 pounds from Raisley Calvert in 1795 so that he could pursue writing poetry
That year, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship
Together they produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), an important work in the English Romantic movement
Wordsworth's most famous poem "Tintern Abbey" was published in the work, along with Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Wordsworth receives an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree from Durham University, and the same honour from Oxford University
The government awarded him a civil list pension amounting to 300 pounds a year
With the death of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour but later agreed
When his daughter, Dora died, his production of poetry came to a standstill

He died by worsening a case of pleurisy on 23 April 1850 and was burried at St. Oswald's church in Grasmere
His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical "poem to Coleridge" as The Prelude several months after his death
Though this failed to arouse great interes in 1850, it has since come to be recognized as his masterpiece