William Wordsworth

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
William Wordsworth was born in the Lake District in 1770. He graduated in Cambridge and grew up with
democratic ideals, principally brought to him by the contact with revolutionary France. His passion for
France was showed also by his love with Annette Vallon, who gave him a daughter.
When the war between England and France broke out, he fell in a nervous breakdown and moved with his
sister Dorothy to Dorset. Dorothy was important in William’s life, since she copied down his poems and
recorded his life in Journals.
When Wordsworth met Coleridge, their friendship took to the formation of a collection of poems “Lyrical
Ballads”, which were published anonymously. The second edition in 1800 was published with a preface
from Coleridge and became the Manifesto of the English Romantic Poetry.
Later in his life, William Wordsworth went back to Lake District with Dorothy, there he married Mary
Hutchinson and they had 5 children. In 1805 he finished his masterpiece The Prelude, which is a long
autobiographical poem. Wordsworth also was made Poet Laureate. Finally he lived his last years with
conservatism and died in 1850.
THE MANIFESTO OF ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
Wordsworth was part of the first generation of Romantic poets. He thought poetry had to talk about
ordinary people, indeed when he decided to write “Lyrical ballads” with Coleridge, they decided to talk
about man, nature and everyday things.
Wordsworth was also against the elevated language, which he defined “poetic diction”. He thought that
poetry needed a simple language. The reason for all these choices was that, on Wordsworth opinion, the
man in rural life is nearer to purer passions. So, the poet should be a man among man, and write about
what interests mankind.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE
Wordsworth shared Rousseau’s thoughts. In his poems, Wordsworth focused on the complex interaction
between man and nature and principally on the emotions and sensation that arise from this contact.
Moreover, he thought that man and nature are inseparable and that Nature is a source of pleasure and joy
that helps men in bad times and helps them morality.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SENSES AND MEMORY
Wordsworth believed that nature is a sense perception, especially trough eyes and ears. His thought was
based on David Hartley’s philosophy, who thought that our morality developed in childhood by physical
experiences. Wordsworth was really interested in the relationship with nature and how this could influence
him. Memory is one of the major forces and the one that allowed Wordsworth to give power and life to his
poetry.
THE POET’S TASK AND STYLE
The great sensibility of the poet together with his power of imagination allowed the poet to become a sort
of teacher of feelings. The poet could teach other people how to understand their feelings and how to
improve morality. Great attention was given to ordinary things of life and humble people.
Wordsworth used majorly blank verse and several others verse forms.
RECOLLECTION IN TRANQUILLITY
Wordsworth poetry is characterized by “emotion recollected in tranquility”. So, by the use of memory, the
poet thinks to a past event and then purifies the emotions in poetic form, thus forming an emotion
“kindred” to the first one In the reader.
The sequence to adopt this poetry can be seen as :
Object -> poet> sensory experience-> emotion -> memory = recollection in tranquility -> contemplation of
emotion -> kindred emotion -> poem -> reader -> emotion
A CERTAIN COLOURING OF IMAGINATION
The text is taken from the preface of “Lyrical Ballads”. The poet initially talks about what he is going to say.
The idea of Wordsworth is of describing everyday life by using a simple language, he is majorly focused of
country life because on his opinion country people are less keen to control their feelings, and also because
it’s a perfect meeting between man and nature.
He also talks about the role of the poet who is a “man speaking to men” , the only difference is that the
poet has a major sensibility and greater knowledge of human nature. By his eyes and his power of
imagination, the poet can see nature in a different way, he also has an ability that allows him to
communicate the feelings to the reader.
Lastly, Wordsworth talks about poetry and emotions. That poetry takes origin from “emotion recollected in
tranquility”.
DAFFODILS
This poem was written in 1804 and published in 1807. It talks about a walk the poet did with his sister
Dorothy.
Wordsworth talks about the walk done in Lake District and the major feeling of the poem is joy; the image
the poet gives us of daffodils dancing in the air is a clear aspect of joy, also it’s clear that their view fill the
poet’s heart.
Another aspect that allows us to think that the main theme is joy is that all the nature described in the
poem is alive, happy.
Moreover, the word “ten thousand” doesn’t describe the exact number of daffodils but wants to give the
idea of a great number of daffodils. Finally, not only the presence of daffodils makes the poet happy but
also the thought of daffodils, as we can see in the last lines.
COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE
The poem describes the view of London from Westminster bridge. It describes London at dawn and its
quietness. Moreover, the poet also describes the relationship between man and God as well as between
nature and civilization.
About the structure, the poem is composed by only one stanza of 14 lines, the rhyme scheme is regular,
and the poem is characterized by cross rhyme.
We can notice two similes in lines 4/5 and in line 13. There’s a metaphor in line 14 too. In the fourth line we
can notice a personification of the word “City”.
The words in purple indicate an inversion. There’s the repetition of “never” in the lines 9,11.
It’s a Petrarchan sonnet and tries to describe a peaceful policy in contrast to what was happening in Europe
at that time.

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WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

THE MANIFESTO OF ENGLISH ROMANTICISM

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SENSES AND MEMORY

THE POET’S TASK AND STYLE

The sequence to adopt this poetry can be seen as :

A CERTAIN COLOURING OF IMAGINATION

COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE

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