William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cumbria, England. By the time he was thirteen years old, Wordsworth had lost both of his parents and was orphaned with his four brothers and sisters, left under the care of uncles. He continued living with his brothers at Hawkshead Grammar School, the boarding school his father had chosen for his boys after their mother’s death. Wordsworth then attended St. John’s College in Cambridge, with his uncles under the impression that he would study to become a member of the clergy. However, the young scholar did not subscribe to their plans, and continued writing poetry throughout his years of formal education.

On a tour of continental Europe in 1790, Wordsworth encountered the French Revolution and its effects. That experience preceded the young poet’s decision to give the “common man” a voice in literature and established the foundation for his political sympathies. He returned to the war-torn country almost two years later and fathered a daughter, Anne Caroline, out of wedlock with a woman named Annette … [After the 1820s, he wrote little new poetry and instead revised his old work, publishing new editions of collections] …Vallon. Wordsworth did not see the child when she was born in 1792, and did not see her for another ten years. In the meantime, he and his sister Dorothy (who was suffering from early senility) settled in Dorset, where Wordsworth set to writing the poetry that would fill the legendary Lyrical Ballads with his new friend and literary partner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The two poets published the collection in 1798. Lyrical Ballads helped usher in the Romantic Era/Movement of British poetry. Wordsworth then began working on long autobiographical poems that would eventually be The Prelude (1850), his great philosophical work.

After meeting his daughter for the first time in 1802, Wordsworth returned to England and married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend and schoolmate. The couple had five children together and cared for Dorothy, whose mental illness was further aggravated by physical ailments. Wordsworth’s literary friendships began to change as he grew farther away from Coleridge. He continued writing and published The Excursion in 1814, just two short years after the deaths of two of his children. However, his popularity had drained since Lyrical Ballads, and the volume was a flop. Wordsworth’s suddenly conservative politics did not help to bring either him or his poetry back into vogue. After the 1820s, he wrote little new poetry and instead revised his old work, publishing new editions of collections. He also published collections of prose and essays on politics that held his attention for some time in the middle of his poetic career.

Wordsworth was named an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford in 1839 and named Poet Laureate of England in 1843. He died at his home with his wife Mary on April 23, 1850. The Prelude was published a few months later by Mrs. Wordsworth.