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William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, a town in the Lake district of northern English. He was educated a Cambridge College, but did not like academic life. His sole ambition was to be a writer. After college in 1790, Wordsworth set out on a long walking tour of France, the Alps, and Italy. He was deeply impassioned by the idea of radical democracy and for a while was greatly enthusiastic about the French Revolution. The following year, he returned to France, and ther began a romance with Annette Vallon, who became pregnant with their daughter, though he was unaware of this when they parted. Unable to return to France because of war, Wordsworth began to write and publish sporadically.
In 1795, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and over the next three years, the two poets composed the poems that became Lyrical Ballads (1798, 1800, 1802). They became the most important publication of the English romantic movement. In 1799, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy settled in the Lake District of England, not far from their birthplace. There Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson, with whom he raised five children, two of whom died in early childhood. Wordsworth was poet laureate of England from 1843 until his death.
Author Links
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The William Wordsworth Page
- This page provides a few links to further information about William Wordsworth, but the two that are most interesting are those that lead to the hypertextual version of Wordsworth's biography, and images of Wordsworth. Either make this site worth visiting.
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Lyrical Ballads
- This site provides an online version of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The text of this version is taken from the manuscript published in 1798.
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Dove Cottage
- This site provides a virtual tour of Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth's first residence in Grasmere, the Lake District, England. Wordsworth lived here from December 20, 1799 until 1813 when he took up residence at nearby Rydal Mount.
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England's Lake District
- This site provides information regarding England's Lake District, an area of lakes and mountain panoramas and much pastoral beauty. Although the context here is modern, you can still get an idea of what this region looked like when William Wordsworth lived here.
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Voice of the Shuttle: Romantics
- This site, part of the Voice of the Shuttle website, provides LOTS of links to all kinds of information related to the Romantic literary movement. It provides several links to further information about William Wordsworth.
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Romantic Chronology
- This site provides details and topics of further information for dates and events associated with the Romantic movement. It is very helpful for providing a context in which to place the work of the Romantic poets.
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Romantic Links
- This site provides LOTS of links to LOTS of information about the Romantic Period and its major contributors.
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Romantic Scholarly Resources
- This site provides a large collection of links to scholarly resources related to the Romantic Period and the people who were its major players. It is a scholarly site, intended for the study of the Romantics, their contemporaries, and their cultural contexts, but the information available here will be useful and engaging for anyone interested in this literary and cultural period.
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"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
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