William Wordsworth

1. William Wordsworth 1770-1850

2. English Lake district

3. Basic Bio • Born 1770, son of attorney and steward to Lord Lonsdale; loses mom at 8 and dad at 13. • Enters Cambridge 1787; hikes in France and Alps 1790 (early in Fr Rev) and again in 1791-2 • Falls in love and plans to marry Catholic Frenchwoman Annette Vallon, with whom he has a daughter Caroline. War between France and England, and a shortage of money, keep them apart.

4. Basic Bio, 2 • 1795 – inherits enough to live by his poetry; settles with sister Dorothy as fellow writer; meets Coleridge; collects fellow writers in Southeastern England • 1798 – publishes Lyrical Balladswith Coleridge; begins a new age in poetry • 1799 – moves back to Lake District, Dove Cottage in Grasmere

5. Basic Bio, 3 • 1802 – comes into inheritance from father and marries Mary Hutchinson • Becomes increasingly socially conservative, conventional, and less innovative as a poet • 1810 – quarrels with Coleridge • 1843 – named poet laureate by Victoria • 1850 – after his death, The Prelude(his poetic autobiography) finally published

6. What is so different about Lyrical Ballads? • Combination of two very different poetic genres – lyric and ballads (narratives) • Adaptation of “language of conversation in the middle and lower classes” to poetry • Overturns 2 assumptions of neoclassical poetics • That the genres of poetry constitute a hierarchy, with “epic” at top (through tragedy, comedy, satire, pastoral) to short lyric at bottom. • Decorum – idea that language of poem and of characters to conform to their social class or space on the poetic hierarchy.

7. Poetic language and Lyrical Ballads • Pre- Lyrical Ballads • Poetic language is distinct from prosaic language • Elevated, metaphorical, artful • Poetry and poetic language belong more to the educated and the upper classes • Lyrical Ballads • Poetic language should be “the language really used by men.” • Ordinary people and events could be “poetic” or “tragic” or of literary significance • Poetry should be a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

8. She dwelt among the untroddenways Besidethe springs of Dove,A Maidwhom there were none to praise And very few to love:A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye!—Fairas a star, when only one Is shining in the sky.She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be;But sheis in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me!