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WordWorth | 1991-05-16 | 11.3 KB | 24 lines |
- William Wordsworth
- 1770 - 1850
-
- William Wordsworth was born on the 7th April 1770 at Cockermouth in Cumberland,
- England. He grew up in the beautiful lake district that was later to provide
- inspiration for much of his poetry and philosophy. His early boyhood was
- marred by the tragedy that was to accompany him throughout life. When he was
- just eight years old his mother died, followed by his father five years later.
-
- From a young age, he was very aware that the way in which he lived would have a
- profound influence upon his creativity. He later put many of his experiences
- into the largely autobiographical poem, The Prelude, recognising that this was
- an unconventional method of writing poetry: "A thing unprecedented in literary
- history that a man should talk so much about himself."
-
- Strong contemporary opinion held that to use poetry to describe normal,
- everyday occurrences was to demean the form. Wordsworth, on the contrary, used
- poetry to exalt the everyday and commonplace, believing it represented the
- truest part of human nature. In his poems: "Low and rustic life was generally
- chosen, because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a
- better soil in which they can attain their maturity. . . in that condition the
- passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of
- nature."
-