William Wordsworth

1770-1850
1. Well-off family but orphaned by 13
  1. Rendered homeless, reliant on relatives
2. Lake District key part of youth
  1. Fed into his poetry
3. Entered Cambridge at 19
  1. French Rev. occurred soon after
    1. Heralded a new era in society
    2. Formative influence
    3. Visited France during Rev.; in Paris during September massacres
      1. Witnessed celebrations & violence
      2. Had an affair & child with a Frenchwoman
4. Began writing political rhetoric in 1793
  1. Remained unpublished to avoid arrest
  2. Moved to poetry as a revolutionary form
Friends & family
1. Sister Dorothy
  1. Constant companion, close bond
  2. Took notes for his poetry
2. Coleridge
  1. Became close friends in 1795
  2. Lyrical Ballads
    1. Composed between 1797-8
      1. Important era for Romanticism
      2. In Somerset
        The friends wanted to be close
    2. Withdrawal from political action
      1. Depiction of the common life
    3. Considered experiments
Poetic features
1. Attitudes:
  1. Introspection
  2. Contemplation
2. Specific detailing of real places
3. Deeply hidden politics
  1. Nature healing political strife
4. Themes:
  1. Memory
  2. Nostalgia
  3. Recapturing childhood innocence
5. Pastoral imagery
The Two-Part Prelude
1. 1799
2. Begun in Germany, 1798
3. Expansion on previous text of 1798
  1. Proto-existentialist
  2. Relies on anecdotal style & blank verse
  3. Product of bourgeois era & Enlightenment
    1. Humanist?
4. Biographical document
  1. Depiction of own childhood
    1. Key part of spiritual development
  2. Tradition of epic form

Next up

William Wordsworth

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by Kathryn Kilby over 8 years ago