William Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth is an English romantic poet, a representative of the "lake school". William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth in Cumberland County. He was the second of five children of D. Wordsworth, a lawyer and agent of J. Lowther (later the first Earl of Lonsdale). In 1779, young William was assigned to a classical school in Hawkshead (North Lancashire), from where he brought out an excellent knowledge of ancient philology and mathematics and a well-read English poetry. In Hawkshead, the future poet devoted a lot of time to his favorite pastime — hiking.

Already in 1787, William entered St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he studied mainly English literature and Italian. During the holidays, he toured the Lake District and Yorkshire and wrote a heroic distich poem "An Evening Walk" (1793), in which there are many soulful pictures of nature.

Windermere, Esthwaite Water and Ambleside, from Rydal Park (Thomas Allom)

Where, in the depths of the chest, the shy Weinander looks out

Because of the coastal islands and steep hills strewn with holly;

Where twilight valleys caress the shore of my Esthwaite,

And the memory of past pleasures, more.

Wordsworth's father died, and his employer, the Earl of Lonsdale, owed him several thousand pounds, but refused to recognize this debt. The family hoped that William would take holy orders, but he was not disposed to this and in November 1791 he again went to France, to Orleans, to improve his knowledge of the French language. In Orleans, he fell in love with the daughter of a military doctor, Anette Vallon, who gave birth to his daughter Caroline on December 15, 1792. His guardians ordered him to return home immediately. William acknowledged his paternity, but did not marry Annette.

htt

On his return to London in December 1792, he published "An Evening Walk" and "Descriptive Sketches" (Descriptive Sketches), an account of a journey with Jones, written in France and colored by an enthusiastic acceptance of the revolution. The outbreak of the Anglo-French war in February 1793 shocked Wordsworth and plunged him into despondency and anxiety for a long time.

Through worlds where Life, Sound and Movement sleep,

Where Silence reigns like death,

Except when a striking cliff rarely breaks:

Mighty ruins drowned in deep snow,"

Mocks the dull ear of Time with a dull, intermittent sound.

In the autumn of 1794, one of William Wordsworth's young friends died, bequeathing him 900 pounds. This timely gift allowed Wordsworth to devote himself entirely to poetry. From 1795 until mid-1797, he lived in Dorsetshire with his only sister Dorothea; they were united by a complete kinship of souls. Dorothea believed in her brother, her support helped him get out of depression. He began with the tragedy "The Borderers" (The Borderers). The poem in white verses "The Ruined Cottage" (about the fate of an unhappy woman) is filled with genuine feeling; subsequently, the poem became the first part of the "Walk" (The Excursion).

In July 1797, the Wordsworths moved to Alfoxden (Somersetshire) — closer to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who lived in Nether Stowey. During a year of close communication with Coleridge, a collection of "Lyrical Ballads" (Lyrical Ballads) was formed, which included Coleridge's "The Tale of the Old Sailor", "The Feeble-Minded Boy", "Thorn", "Lines" written at a distance of several miles from Tintern Abbey and other poems by Wordsworth. An anonymous edition was published in September 1798. Samuel Taylor Coleridge persuaded Wordsworth to begin an epic "philosophical" poem about "man, nature and society" called "The Recluse" (The Recluse). William enthusiastically set to work, but got bogged down in the composition.

As part of this plan, he wrote only a poetic introduction "About man, nature and life", an autobiographical poem "The Prelude" (The Prelude, 1798-1805) and "The Walk" (1806-1814). In Alfoxden he also finished (but did not publish) "Peter Bell" (Peter Bell). In December 1799, he and Dorothea rented a cottage in Grasmere (Westmoreland County). In January 1800, William Wordsworth published the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, adding the narrative poems "Brothers" and "Michael" created in Grasmere and an extensive preface with discussions about the nature of poetic inspiration, the purpose of the poet, the content and style of true poetry. Coleridge did not give a single new work to the second edition, and it, having absorbed the first, was published under the name of one William Wordsworth.

The winter and spring of 1802 were marked by the poet's creative activity: "The Cuckoo", the triptych "Butterfly", "Promises of Immortality": "Ode", "Determination" and "Independence" were written. In May 1802, the old Earl of Lonsdale died, and the heir agreed to pay the Wordsworths 8000 pounds. This significantly strengthened the well-being of Dorothea and William, who was going to marry Mary Hutchinson. In August, all three visited Calais, where they saw Anette Vallon and Caroline, and on October 4, Mary and Wordsworth were married. Their marriage was very happy. From 1803 to 1810, she bore him five children. Dorothea stayed with her brother's family.

In 1808, the Wordsworths moved to a larger house in the same Grasmere. There Wordsworth wrote most of the "Walk" and several prose works, including his famous pamphlet about the Convention in Cintra, dictated by sympathy for the Spaniards under Napoleon and outrage at the treacherous policy of England. This period was overshadowed by a quarrel with Coleridge and the death in 1812 of daughter Catherine and son Charles.

In May 1813, the Wordsworths left Grasmere and settled in Rydal Mount, two miles closer to Ambleside, where they lived for the rest of their days. In the same year, Wordsworth received, through the patronage of Lord Lonsdale, the post of state commissioner for stamp duties in two counties, Westmoreland and part of Cumberland, which allowed him to provide for his family. He held this position until 1842, when he was awarded a royal pension of 300 pounds a year.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) William Wordsworth was able to satiate his passion for travel by visiting Europe several times. He finished the "Prelude", the "poem about his life", back in 1805, but in 1832-1839 he carefully rewrote it, softening too frank passages and inserting pieces imbued with emphatically Christian sentiments.

In 1807 he published "Poems in Two Volumes" (Poems in Two Volumes), which included many great examples of his lyrics. The Walk was published in 1814, followed in 1815 by the first collection of poems in two volumes (and the third was added in 1820). In 1816, the "Thanksgiving Ode" was published — for the victorious end of the war. In 1819, "Peter Bell and the Charioteer" (The Waggoner), written back in 1806, was published, and in 1820— the cycle of sonnets "The River Duddon" (The River Duddon). In 1822, Ecclesiastical Sketches were published, in the form of sonnets setting out the history of the Anglican Church since its formation. "Back to Yarrow" (Yarrow Revisited, 1835) was mostly written based on impressions from trips to Scotland in 1831 and 1833. The last book published by William Wordsworth was "Poems written mainly in youth and old Age" (Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years, 1842), which included "The Inhabitants of the Borderlands" and an early poem «Wines and grief.»

The last twenty years of the poet's life were overshadowed by the prolonged illness of his beloved sister Dorothea. In 1847, he lost his only daughter Dora, whom he loved very much. His wife and devoted friends were his support. Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850.