Author: Wordsworth, William
Biography:
WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850: ODNB)
The second of five children of John Wordsworth and his wife Ann Cookson, he was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, where his father served Sir James Lowther in a legal capacity and was town bailiff and recorder. He was educated at a dame school in Penrith and, after the death of his mother in 1778, at Hawkshead grammar school. His father’s death in 1783 meant the children were dependent on relatives and he was separated from his younger sister, Dorothy (1771-1855), the sibling to whom he was most close. His first poem, “On Seeing Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress,” was published in the European Magazine in 1787, the year he matriculated at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Although he finished his degree, he graduated in 1791 without honours. In summer of 1790 he travelled to France and through the Alps with a friend, Robert Jones; he returned to France in 1791 and had a relationship with Annette Vallon which led to the birth of a daughter, Caroline, in December 1792. By that time, Wordsworth had returned to England needing to secure employment and an income. There followed an unsettled time, with periods of residence with Dorothy at Racedown Lodge, Dorset, and at Alfoxden where they moved to be near Samuel Taylor Coleridge (q.v.). In 1799 Dorothy and William moved to the Lake District where they remained, living in various locations and leaving only to travel. In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson; they had five children but two died in early childhood. A settled domestic life proved beneficial for Wordsworth’s productivity and ongoing financial difficulties were eased in April 1813 when he became distributor of stamps for Westmorland and the Penrith area of Cumberland. Despite the reservations of some critics about his poetic practice and choice of subjects, his work was popular in his lifetime and he was awarded honorary degrees by Durham and Oxford universities and a civil list pension. In 1845 he was made poet laureate. He died at his home of Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, from pleurisy and was buried in the churchyard at Grasmere. His long autobiographical poem, The Prelude, was published three months after his death. (ODNB 3 Jan. 2021)
Other Names:
- W. Wordsworth
- Wordsworth
- William Wordworth