Who was William Wordsworth?
William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who helped launch the Romantic movement in English literature. He is best known for the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, often called Daffodils.
Wordsworth was born in 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumbria, in the Lake District. The landscape of the Lakes deeply influenced his poetry.
In 1798, he published Lyrical Ballads with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The collection marked the beginning of English Romanticism, using simple language to describe nature and everyday life.
Life in the Lakes
Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage in Grasmere with his sister, Dorothy, whose journals inspired some of his poems. He later moved to Rydal Mount.
His long autobiographical poem, The Prelude, describes his development as a poet.
Wordsworth became Poet Laureate in 1843. He died in 1850 and is buried in Grasmere churchyard.
Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere are open to visitors. His birthplace in Cockermouth is owned by the National Trust.
His poems celebrated the beauty of nature and the importance of memory and emotion, and he helped make the Lake District a destination for visitors.