William Wordsworth and The Lake District

Welcome to the 'William Wordsworth's Lakeland' section of The Lake District dot eu, the site dedicated to the stunning Lake District of northern England.

Can there be anyone who hasn't read or heard, 'I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o'er vales and hills, / When all at once I saw a crowd, / A host of golden daffodils;' the well loved opening lines of 'Daffodils', by William Wordsworth?

William Wordsworth was one of the great English Romantic Poets, and he also became known as one of the three 'Lakeland Poets'. He was born, lived and died in the Lakes he loved so much. Born in 1770, in Cockermouth, he was educated at the Grammar school in Hawkshead, and subsequently spent much of his life in Grasmere and Rydal. Dove Cottage, in Grasmere is where most of his best known poetry was written. It was also whilst living at Dove Cottage that his sister Dorothy wrote her journals and they were visited by some of Britain's most well known poets and artists. He died at Rydal Mount in 1850 and is buried in Grasmere churchyard.

Wordsworth was the second of five children. His mother died in 1778 and it was at this time that he was sent to Hawkshead and separated from his sister Dorothy. Some of his time was also spent in Penrith with his maternal grandparents, an experience that was very unhappy for him. However, less than 10 years later, in 1787 he had his first sonnet published and, in the same year, he went up to St John's College, Cambridge. After graduation he travelled extensively, on often walking tours, in Europe, even visiting Revolutionary France in 1791, where he fathered his first daughter, Caroline.

In the years that followed, Wordsworth continued writing poetry, and work was published. He met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he became close friends. Wordwsworth, and his sister Dorothy, moved to Somerset to be near Coleridge, and the two poets collaborated on the publication of 'Lyrical Ballads' in 1798. There followed a period in which they lived in Germany but, on their return, Dorothy and William went to live in Dove Cottage in Grasmere, and nearby was Robert Southey. The three poets, Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge would become known as the 'Lakeland Poets'.

In 1802 Wordsworth had visited France, with Dorothy, to meet his daughter and her mother. Later that year he married Mary Hutchinson, whom he'd known in childhood. The three of them, William, Mary and Dorothy, lived together in Grasmere, the two women becoming close friends. Although writing continuously, Wordworth was relatively unknown to the general public but, in 1807, he published, 'Poems in Two Volumes'. The next few years had their high points but also too many low points. His friendship with Coleridge was affected by the latter's addiction to opium; two of Wordsworth's children died in 1812. On the plus side, for these years, he took a postition, as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, with an income that meant he could continue writing but not have to depend on an income from it for security. The family, and Dorothy, made the move to Rydal Mount, Ambleside, where he would spend the rest of his life.

Some of his earlier work had received only lukewarm critical appraisal but, by 1820, he was beginning to enjoy much greater public and critical acclaim. His friendship with Coleridge recovered but his sister Dorothy was seriously ill, in 1829, leaving her an invalid for the rest of her life. Wordsworth was now being recognised as one of the foremost figures in contemporary poetry and he was rewarded with an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838 from Durham University; the following year he received the same honour from Oxford University. When the then Poet Laureate, Robert Southey died, in 1843, Wordsworth accepted the honour. He died in 1850 and his widow, Mary, published his autobriographical work (previously referenced only as, 'Poem to Coleridge'), as 'The Prelude', later the same year. This major poem was intended to be only a part of a much greater, three-part work, which had been in the planning stage for much of his life. Only the first part, 'Prelude' had been completed, although never published..