Poet, born April 7,
1770, died April 23,
1850. His "Lyrical Ballads" (
1798), written with
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the English
Romantic movement.
An orphan by the age of 13, he spent his childhood at a boarding school and much enjoyed the chance to spend a lot of time outdoors. His love of nature influenced his poetry greatly. He idled his way through college and received only average grades; after college he spent time in London hanging out with radicals like William Godwin and doing nothing in particular for a few years.
Eventually he and his sister went to live together in a country house, where he met Coleridge. Wordsworth's poems became shorter and more lyrical under that influence; their work was published to no critical acclaim but it became somewhat popular.
He remained very prolific until around 1810, when his style changed and became less lyrical. He still produced some poems after that, and in 1843 he was made poet laureate of England (having long since outgrown his radical reputation).