Wordsworth and

Romanticism

Wordsworth’s Life• born in 1770 • English Lake District.• when he was 8, his

mother died. • his father died, when

William was 13

Cockermouth, Cumbria

Wordsworth’s Earliest House

Home Life

• father was an estate manager

• The family lived well

View of the kitchen and fine china

William’s Schooling

• local Grammar school

• poetry

Undergraduate YearsUndergraduate Years

• St John’s College, Cambridge • In the summer of 1790• landscape & Revolution

The Savoie region of the Alps, through which Wordsworth and Jones traveled in the summer of 1791

The French Alps

Settling in England

• average quality degree

• anti-Monarchist ideas.

• Annette Vallon• War

Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s home from 1799-1809

• Dorothy• Mary

Hutchinson• Home

Wordsworth’s Mature Years

• the Lake District • Poet Laureate • Died in 1850

Society and Influences

• a reaction to the world

• the Industrial Revolution and Nature

• Lyrical Ballads, with Coleridge, in 1798.

• a break with the Renaissance

His Own Poetry

• focus = the simple miracle of perception and experience.

• “thought long and deeply.”• vivid, direct images and

descriptions.• lyrical blank verse

London, 1802

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:England hath need of thee: she is a fenOf stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,Have forfeited their ancient English dower 5Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;Oh! raise us up, return to us again;And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: 10Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,So didst thou travel on life's common way,In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heartThe lowliest duties on herself did lay.

I Wandered Lonely as a CloudI wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils;

5 Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line

10 Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

15 A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed---and gazed---but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie 20 In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

The Romantics’ InfluenceI wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

William Wordsworth

(Poetical Works 311)

Born a poor young country boy--Mother Nature's son

All day long I'm sitting singing songs for everyone.

Sit beside a mountain stream--see her waters rise

Listen to the pretty sound of music as she flies.

Find me in my field of grass--Mother Nature's son

Swaying daisies sing a lazy song beneath the sun.

Paul McCartney

(Beatles 376)

Wordsworth’s Legacy

• the start of the Romantic movement.• rural life is considered to be a haven • celebrated the immediate, the

emotional and the personal • a valuing of personal experience and

reaction • His contemporaries: Coleridge, Byron,

Keats, and Shelley

WorksWorks Cited Page“Cambridge 2000: St. John’s College: First Court: chapel.” Cambridge 2000: photos

of Cambridge, England. 1/8/07. www.cambridge2000.com/cambridge2000/html/0009/P911249.html. 1/10/07.

“county map of England.” Pictures of England.com.

http://www.picturesofengland.com/mapofengland/counties-map.html. 2/18/09.

Fraistat, Neil et al. “Lyrical Ballads – London 1798 – Full Text.” Lyrical Ballads: an

electronic scholarly edition. www.dal.ca/~etc/lballads/London98/frames.html. 1/10/07.

“Graveyard at Oswald Church.” Poets’ Graves. http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/wordsworth.htm. 2/18/09.

“Wordsworth and the Romantics.” The Wordsworth Trust. www.wordsworth.org.uk/Default.asp?page=16. 1/10/07.

Sources I cannot cite because they are from a British Internet site that Mr. Shaw was a member of

… sorry! Don’t use this as an example of what you should do http://www.btinternet.com/~lake.district/cm/wordhse.htmhttp://www.btinternet.com/~lake.district/wilword.htm