William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

(1770-1850)

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

From the Lyrical Ballads

Themes

Selected Works

Biography

THE SENSES AND MEMORY

MAN AND NATURE

• Man and nature are inseparable;
• pantheistic view of nature: nature is the seat of the spirit of the universe;
• nature comforts man in sorrow, it is a source of joy and pleasure, it teaches man to love, to act in a moral way.

• Wordsworth exploited the sensibility of the eye and ear to perceive the beauty of nature;
• he believed that the moral character develops during childhood ‒ influence of David Hartley (1705-1757);
• the sensations caused by physical experience lead to simple thoughts.

THE POET'S TASK

• These simple thoughts later combine into complex and organised ideas;
• memory is a major force in the process of growth of the poet’s mind.

LIFE

• Born in in Cumberland, in the English Lake District in 1770;
• in 1791 he got a B.A. Degree at St John’s College, Cambridge;
• in 1791 he travelled to Revolutionary France and was fascinated by the Republican movement.

• the Reign of Terror led him to become estranged to the Republic, and the war between England and France caused him to return to England;
• in 1795 he moved to Dorset with his sister Dorothy, who was his most faithful friend.

Wordsworth’s House in Cockermouth, Cumberland