William Wordsworth.

The second of five children, William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cumberland, England, to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. His mother died when he was eight, his father when he was thirteen, after which he lived with his uncles. At Hawkshead Grammar School he discovered a passion for nature and poetry. Later, at St John’s College, Cambridge, his literary interests took precedence over academic pursuits.

Wordsworth’s career began with the publication of Descriptive Sketches in 1793, but his breakthrough came in 1798 with Lyrical Ballads, co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This collection, which includes Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, marked the beginning of the Romantic Age in English literature. He continued to produce notable works like Poems in Two Volumes 1807, which contained I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. His autobiographical poem The Prelude, completed in 1805, appeared posthumously in 1850. Wordsworth served as Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson in 1802. They had five children: Anne Caroline, Dora, Catherine, John, and Thomas. Catherine and Thomas died young. His sister Dorothy Wordsworth, a writer and diarist, lived with him and his wife for many years. The family lived at Dove Cottage in Grasmere and later at Rydal Mount. He had an affair with Annette Vallon in France during the 1790s, which produced a daughter, Anne Caroline.

Wordsworth’s collaboration with Coleridge on Lyrical Ballads in 1798 launched the Romantic movement. His emphasis on nature, emotion, and ordinary life influenced poets including John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud remains one of the most quoted poems in English. He served as Poet Laureate from 1843 to 1850. He is called the Poet of Nature, and his works are still widely read and studied.