William Wordsworth was one of the most important poets of the eighteenth century. Why is he still an important poet in the twenty-first century?
Unlike many poets, his work became widely read and was held in high esteem by scholars during his lifetime. Today, his reputation continues: courses on Wordsworth’s poetry are still taught today at schools, colleges, and universities worldwide.
So, what makes William Wordsworth so notable?
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who lived from 1770 to 1850. He is best known for pioneering the Romantic Age in English literature alongside other poets like Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth's poetry often focused on the beauty and spiritual values of the natural world, the importance of emotion and imagination, and the purity of the human mind. His most famous work, "Lyrical Ballads," co-authored with Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic movement in English literature. Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850, and his legacy includes timeless poems such as "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also known as "Daffodils") and the semi-autobiographical epic, "The Prelude."
Wordsworth was born in Cumberland, England in 1770. At an early age, he lost both his father and mother, which was quite traumatizing. Wordsworth was educated at Hawkhead boarding school in the Lake District. Being surrounded by the area’s beauty and having an education studying classics, mathematics, and literature helped Wordsworth cope with the pain of losing his parents and inspired him to start writing verse.
Wordsworth was brought up as an Anglican within The Church of England. His faith was never nominal in contrast to the British culture of the day. Despite the losses Wordsworth experienced, he found his faith in Christ strengthened over time. Wordsworth recognized Christ as the source of all beauty, goodness, and truth.
In his lifetime, Wordsworth inspired many poets, was recognized as an important English poet by scholars and everyday people, and in 1843 became England’s poet laureate. He died in 1850.
The poems listed below are a good way to begin exploring Wordsworth's work.
In the Christian tradition, poetry has been important from the very beginning. Poetry is found in the book of Genesis, Proverbs, the Psalms, The Song of Solomon, and particular parts of the New Testament. Many poets in the Christian tradition, such as John Milton, George Herbert, Robert Burns, George MacDonald, Christina Rossetti, and Wordsworth, were all inspired by poetry found in Scripture.
Despite the pain and suffering he experienced, Wordsworth’s belief in a good and loving Creator making all things new in the world gave him the courage to pursue a vocational calling as a poet. Like the Psalms, Wordsworth's poetry praises the beauty of God found in nature and explores honest, raw emotions of sorrow, confusion, joy, and praise.
Wordsworth’s faith encompassed all of his life, including his poetry. Therefore, there was no distinction between what is sacred and what is secular. Wordsworth understood that in writing poetry and collaborating with other poets, he could glorify Christ by cultivating his craft and communicating important human emotions and spiritual truths.
William Wordsworth had several important relationships in his life that influenced his poetry and personal happiness. Most notably, he was deeply attached to his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, who was a significant figure in his life and a literary figure in her own right. Dorothy's diaries and writings provide a great deal of insight into their close relationship and her influence on his work.
Wordsworth also loved Mary Hutchinson, whom he married in 1802. Mary and William had known each other since childhood, and she provided him with a stable and supportive family life. The couple had five children together. Mary's presence and their shared life experiences are reflected in some of Wordsworth's poetry, where he often celebrates love, domestic tranquility, and personal reflection.
Additionally, Wordsworth's early romantic relationship with a French woman named Annette Vallon also had a profound impact on his life. He met her during his stay in France in the early 1790s. Their relationship resulted in the birth of a daughter, Caroline. Although Wordsworth had to leave France due to political unrest and their relationship ended, he remained interested in Caroline's well-being and maintained some level of contact over the years. This relationship and his separation from his daughter are thought to have influenced several of his works.
Wordsworth was one of the Romantic poets, a group who wrote about being able to observe the divine in the natural world. These poets explored important spiritual themes, such as suffering, pain, redemption, beauty, and joy.
The Romantic period in English literature was a reaction against the Age of Reason. The seventeenth-century Enlightenment saw faith and reason as mutually exclusive. Enlightenment philosophers like David Hume and Voltaire claimed that only what could be verified empirically was true, and any belief in the divine was nothing more than primitive superstition. The Romantic period was a literary movement rejecting the Enlightenment’s rationalism. The Romantic poets sought to convey that the divine can be experienced through nature’s beauty, as well as through the five senses, and exploring mythology.
The Romantic period was also a movement against the Industrial Revolution’s desecration of landscapes and placing people in appalling working conditions in dreary factories. Wordsworth and the other Romanic poets saw this as a sin against human creativity and defiling God’s good world. Though the Romantics were often criticized as too idealistic, they understood the harm done when money becomes more important than human beings.
Though some good came out of the Industrial Revolution, such as new types of jobs, the steam engine, the power loom, and new technological advancements, Wordsworth lamented the damage it had done by replacing many beautiful natural landscapes and making people work like slaves for extremely low wages. Since human beings are fallen and easily corrupted by power and greed, this drastic cultural shift has happened since the beginning.
Wordsworth’s non-fiction and biographies written about him both show that William Shakespeare was one of the most important poets he read at a young age. Shakespeare showed Wordsworth the importance of the imagination and its connection to reason in the life of a poet. In the second volume of his memoirs, published in 1851 by his nephew Christopher, Wordsworth stated:
“When I began to give myself up to the profession of a poet for life, I was impressed with a conviction, that there were four English poets whom I must have continually before me as examples: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton. These I must study and equal if I could.”
Wordsworth was a great admirer of the sixteenth-century English poet John Milton, author of the iconic works Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity. Milton’s epic, inspired by different world mythologies and the fall of humankind restored in the Genesis story, inspired Wordsworth to convey theological truths through storytelling in his poetry.
Wordsworth found a kindred spirit in seventeenth-century poet John Donne. Wordsworth appreciated Donne’s honesty about doubt and faith, as well as the sonnet and verse form of poetry he used. Wordsworth also marveled at how Donne glorified God in his vocation as a priest, overcame dire poverty, and became the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
In the 1790s, Wordsworth met fellow English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772 in Devon, England, to Ann and John Coleridge. Coleridge did not have many friends in his adolescence since he grew up in a remote village. From an early age, Coleridge was a voracious reader. After his father died in 1781, Coleridge was sent to Christ’s Hospital in London. At this grammar school, Coleridge learned Latin, French, and Hebrew and was exposed to the writings of Williams, Shakespeare, and John Milton.
The two soon became friends, sharing a similar passion for poetry and writing. The two romantic poets collaborated on a book called Lyrical Ballads, published in 1798. According to scholars, this important book of poetry began the romantic movement in English Literature.
Wordsworth inspired many poets during his lifetime, including Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron.
English poet John Keats found the poetry of Wordsworth to be of great inspiration when he decided to pursue a career as a poet instead of a surgeon. Keats delighted in Wordworth's descriptions of nature and his exploration of the complexity of being human. Keats eventually became well known for such works as Ode To A Nightingale, Hyperion, and Endymion.
The Irish poet W. B. Yeats found a kindred spirit in the poetry of Wordsworth. Just as Wordsworth was captivated by the English landscape in the Lake District, so was Yeats captivated by the landscape of Ireland and Celtic Mythology. Yeats blended romanticism and mysticism in his work. In 1923, Yeats became the first Irish poet to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.
Though C.S. Lewis is better known for his other works than his poetry, he wrote poetry throughout his life, often influenced by Wordsworth’s works like The Prelude. Lewis’ autobiography, Surprised by Joy, was inspired by a line from Wordworth’s poem, “Surprised by Joy.” In his autography, Lewis wrote about a bittersweet longing he called ‘joy,’ roused by the beauty of landscape, poetry, and mythology. In his poetry, Wordsworth also conveys how this joy is roused by the beauty of landscape reflecting God’s glory.
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Justin Wiggins is an author who works and lives in the primitive, majestic, beautiful mountains of North Carolina. He graduated with his Bachelor's in English Literature, with a focus on C.S. Lewis studies, from Montreat College in May 2018. His first book was Surprised by Agape, published by Grant Hudson of Clarendon House Publications. His second book, Surprised By Myth, was co-written with Grant Hudson and published in 2021. Many of his recent books (Marty & Irene, Tír na nÓg, Celtic Twilight, Celtic Song, Ragnarok, Celtic Dawn) are published by Steve Cawte of Impspired.
Wiggins has also had poems and other short pieces published by Clarendon House Publications, Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, and Sweetycat Press. Justin has a great zeal for life, work, community, writing, literature, art, pubs, bookstores, coffee shops, and for England, Scotland, and Ireland.
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