Preview

Life of William Wordsworth

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1761 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Life of William Wordsworth
Toni Partin
Dr. Cheryl Powell
ENC 1101- 70082 [ 28 July 2010 ]
Research Paper - rough draft

The Life of William WordsWorth William Wordsworth is considered one of the greatest poets during the English Romantic Period. He is also considered, only next to Shakespeare, one of the greatest sonneteers. There are some historians that even believe that William Wordsworth, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Period. This statement has been debated between historians, but one thing that they do agree on is, William Wordsworth shaped the literary era. The Romantic Period was a time that allowed artistic freedom. The early 60 's is the closest period of time that can be related to this time in history. The creativity and experimentation of artists, poets, and ordinary people was beginning to bloom. That was a period of great change. The Classical Period was more controlling. There were strict laws of the Classical Period slowly began to change as Romanticism moved away from such control. The Romantic Period was also a movement of literary and intellectual thinking. Romanticism emphasized on imagination, freedom of feelings, and was mostly connected within the visual arts, music, and literature. Imagination was more important than logic. This period is mostly associated with the arts and poets like William Wordsworth. William Wordsworth, the most significant poet of the English Romantic Period, was greatly influenced as a writer by his childhood, love of nature, and his many relationships. According to Judith W. Page, William Wordsworth was the " central poet of his age" (Gale 1). William Wordsworth 's poetry was drawn from his amazing memory, and was mostly based on Nature, people he watched, and personal experiences. Leslie Brisman said of Wordsworth, "To call William Wordsworth a "Memory Poet" is to note how he substitutes personal memories for other assurances of continuity, natural or divine." (276-277). Because each



Cited: Anderson, Dale and Harold Bloom. "Biography of William Wordsworth." Bloom 's Bio Critiques: William Wordsworth (2003): 5-52. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 14 Jul 2010. Aubrey, Bryan. "William Wordsworth." Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century (1999): 1-7. Literary Reference Center plus. Web. 14 Jul 2010. Brisman, Leslie. Romantic Origins. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1978. Print. Drabble, Margaret. "Wordsworth, William." The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford U P, 1985. 1084-1086. Print Gale, Thomson, ed. "William Wordsworth." Authors and Artists for Young Adults 70 (2010): 1- 18. Biography Resources Center. Web. 14 Jul 2010. George, Andrew J, ed. The complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth: Cambridge Edition. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 1932. Print. Hartman, Geoffrey H. "Wordsworth: The Romance of Nature and the Negative Way." English Romantic Poets. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. 83-122. Print. Lee, Michelle, ed. Poetry Criticism. Vol. 67. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 245-374. Print. Purkis, John. A Preface to Wordsworth. Ed Maurice Hussey. New York: Scribner, 1970. Print. Watson, F.R. "William Wordsworth." Poets American and British. Ed. George Stade, Leonard Unger, and A. Walton Litz. Vol. 3. New York: Scriber, 1988. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Romanticism was a literary movement that developed mainly throughout the influences of the philosophy of Locke and the causes and consequences of revolutionary spirit of the French revolution. Wordsworth was brought up reading the Augustan´s metric poetry and the neoclassicist’s descriptive complex language which fully expressed the ideas of reasoning over sentiments. Influenced and inspired by the changing ideological atmosphere of the late XVIII and the first third of the XIX century, Wordsworth found his own poetic voice distancing from artificiality of the authors from the past, and writing with sentiment when describing the emotions awakened by the images of nature. He considered Nature as an intelligent, meaningful power of the external world who teaches moral truth and influences the human being’s character. Thus, his poems reflected this twirling relationship between nature and men. Nature's dominant forces are depicted throughout vivid images expressed in an unsophisticated language; simple words that are timely related to provoke mental association processes that could stimulate moral and spiritual growth. Therefore, the cyclical link that connects Nature,” considered as a being with a soul and its purposes, with the human soul and its purposes” (from notes on Wordsworth’s poetic theory) was fully expressed on his work. And as a masterpiece, the publication of the “Lyrical Ballads”(written by Wordsworth and Coleridge) were a clear exponent of romantic ideology of that time, so far to become “ one of the most transcendental and revolutionary books in the history of the English literature, and the symbol of the beginning of the Romanticism in England” (Baladas Liricas de Corugedo y Chamosa)…

    • 2456 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Wordsworth is one of the famous authors from the Romantic era. Romanticism was an era which began to change during the French Revolution and continued through the Industrial Revolution. This genre of writing was different from previous genres. Romanticism followed little of the rules and authors were free to write as they felt. Most literature from this period was based on love, fascinations, obsessions, myths, and nature. A majority of Wordsworth’s literature expressed his obsession with nature. Three poems in which express this obsession is “Composition upon Westminster Bridge,” My heart leaps up when I behold,” and the most popular, “I wandered lonely as a Cloud.”…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Examples of Romanticism

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Romanticism centers around emotion and free expression. According to the preface of William Woodsworth’s Lyrical Ballads, poetry should be “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” The best way to express this emotion was to develop content through imagination, and not to be dominated by what would be considered rational.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Romanticism deals a lot with elements and how the affect human beings. Romanticism allowed people to get away from the constricted, normal views of life and concentrate on an emotional and sentimental side of humanity. The majority of literature during this time focused on the state of human nature. The romantic period was characterized by the ideas and techniques of the literary period that preceded it, which was more scientific and rational in nature. Romantics were involved in emotional directness of personal experience and individual imagination and aspiration. This emotional directness of personal experience can be viewed in two novels written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein and Mathilda. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley lives through her writings breathing through each character; one can place themselves into the world of Shelley through these novels.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romantic literature, like other genres, shares similar literary elements that unify a certain style of poetry. William Wordsworth, a Romantic poet, used images of nature along with themes of idealism expressed with emotion in his poetry. These elements that Wordsworth used were very typical of other Romantic work's themes and images. Without Wordsworth's use of them, his poetry would have a completely different effect.…

    • 707 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Wordsworth as a Teacher

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to Wordsworth, every poet ought to be a teacher. Regarding himself, it was his opinion that he should be remembered merely as a teacher. But his concept of teaching was somewhat untraditional. It was his firm opinion that education should never be knowledge oriented, but life oriented. If an educated man is not able to solve human problems, his education is useless. In 'The Tables Turned', he openly says:…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    William Wordsworth's poetry is characteristic of poetry written during the Romantic period. His pantheism and development of ambiance, the thoughts and feelings expressed and the diction Wordsworth employs are all symbolic of this period's poetry. In this paper, these characteristics will be explored and their "Romantic" propensities exposed. This will be done by utilizing a wide selection of Wordsworth's poetry spanning the poet's lifetime.…

    • 5615 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Wordsworth

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Today Wordsworth 's poems are widely read articles in the words and even included in the curriculum of various colleges to understand the history and basics of the romantic poetry. William Wordsworth 's natural tendency of explaining facts in dictions have greatly helped in evoking the senses in his poems and made his poetry very much real to the readers while they reads the poem. This uniqueness of Wordsworth always considered having universal appeal, which was also explained by the Wordsworth himself in his own words, on his role, what it meant for him, and about the poetry; which called "the most philosophical of all writing" whose objective is to establish “truth...carried alive into the heart by passion".…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lord Byron Research Paper

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Romantic period, year 1785 till 1830 C.E., was a period of great change throughout the world, especially but not only in literary style. This period saw the formation of new countries, new governing styles, and the birth of many new ways of thinking. In this time British Literature was characterized by the work of six major writers, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy, Shelly, Keats, and Blake. (Book page 1363-4). Lord Byron, as described by Hipolyte Taine, a French critic of the late romantic, said that Lord Byron was “the greatest and most English of these artists;’ he is so great and so English that from him alone we shall learn more truths…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great development also happened in intellectual life and literature. Particularly in literature, Romantic writing is mostly poetry. For the changes occurred in almost all aspects of life, the literature fields also were expected to transform especially by Wordsworth and Coleridge. They wanted to contrast the poetic language and…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Wordsworth initiated English Romanticism, along with help from Samuel Taylor Coleridge with their publication of lyrical ballads. The Romanticism movement occurred in Europe in the late eighteenth century. Romanticism includes direct language, intense feelings, a love of nature, imagery, freedom of thought and refers to European art from around 1797 to 1848. This era was a response to the traditions brought up during the Enlightenment which was an era when individual rights were limited. The Romantic Era was totally different from the previous eras because individuals wanted to express their own thoughts and ideas. Two poems by William Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Why during…

    • 152 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The writings of the poets of the Romantic Period were directly affected by the events that took place around them. Most of these writers were deeply associated with London, and as the capital of England, anything that took place affected them most. This was a direct reflection of the subject matter of their various works, from the influence of the Church of England, to the rights of women during that time period.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Wordsworth

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages

    British poet, who spent his life in the Lake District of Northern England. William Wordsworth started with Samuel Taylor Coleridge the English Romantic movement with their collection LYRICAL BALLADS in 1798. When many poets still wrote about ancient heroes in grandiloquent style, Wordsworth focused on the nature, children, the poor, common people, and used ordinary words to express his personal feelings. His definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings arising from "emotion recollected in tranquillity" was shared by a number of his followers.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Wordsworth’s poetry embodies the spiritual focus of romantics and their refusal to conform to the literary traditions of the age of reason. The modern “rational” world which Wordsworth came from was becoming increasingly polluted and destructive. It prohibited the imaginative escape of authors and so people like Wordsworth found solace and escape in what was left of nature and their own imaginative poems. Poems like “Strange Fits of Passion have I Known” and “the Solitary reaper” illustrate Wordsworth’s passion for the spiritual and the emotional freedom that nature and the mind offered. Wordsworth utilised traditional poetic techniques such as imagery and symbolism however, he expressed them in unique, passionate ways.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Romanticism Essay

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages

    When most people hear someone say romanticism they think about flowers and love, but the American Romantic Period isn’t about that at all. The American Romantic Period was a period in American history where the authors and poets changed their writing style to focus more on spirituality and individualism. This time period stretched from the year 1790 to the year 1860. Three big historical events that took place during this time period were the industrial revolution, Louisiana Purchase, and the war of 1812. The industrial revolution was an influence because a lot of people were immigrating to the US and causing people to move west and into the country. The Louisiana Purchase was influential because it helped the romantic authors…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays