William Wordsworth

1770-1850, English poet of the early Romantic movement.

Life

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770. His parents John and Ann Wordsworth lived in Cockermouth back then, a small town in Cumberland, England. Working as an attorney and later appointed law agent and land stewart (Masson 5), William's father had good connections in society despite his very young age (Gill 1). At the age of seven, William, his three brothers and his sister Dorothy lost their mother in March 1778. John Wordsworth died six years later at the age of 42. Together with his older brother Richard, William was sent to Hawkshead boarding-school in Lancashire after Ann Wordsworth died, until he was seventeen.

References

"William Wordsworth." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Jan. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/647975/William-Wordsworth>.

Gill, Stephen. William Wordsworth. A Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Masson, Rosaline. Wordsworth. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1912.

Wordsworth, Jonathan, Michael C. Jaye, and Robert Woof eds. William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism. 2nd ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988.