Some poets are trailblazers and some poets are followers; very few are like William Wordsworth, one of the main innovator of the Romantic Period. Poetry was innate to William Wordsworth, he says this of his masterpiece, “Tintern Abbey;” “No poem of mine was composed under such circumstances more pleasant for me to remember than this” (Wordsworth).
Wordsworth had the potential to do well at Cambridge, but after his first two placements which placed him first and second consecutively, he lost interest in his studies and several times he only did parts of his exams or none of them. He was disillusion with university; he did not believe in competition and felt that he would do the opposite of what is expected of him. His uncle wanted him to complete his studies with honors and move on to a fellowship; but that was not his plan; he spent his time at Cambridge reading what pleased him; mostly English poetry, he taught himself Spanish and French and took Italian lesson from a tutor. After leaving Cambridge in 1790, he tricked through Wales and took a foot tour of France, Switzerland and Germany (Mary Moorman, 80-127).
The last part of the question asked for your own thoughts about Wordsworth and his poetry and you did not give me that information, I am the one who did the paper; consequently I am giving my own thoughts. Wordsworth was one of the first poets of my childhood; once I learned “The Daffodils,” in elementary school, I have never forgotten it and over the years as I revisit it, I enjoy it more because I understand it better. “Tintern Abbey is a poem full with graphic imagery of nature and after doing a background investigation of Wordsworth I am sent me back to the poem. I understand it so much better now, Wordsworth spent all of his formative years around nature and he finds the flow or the rush of rivers and streams soothing; he literally experienced nature at its best and considering the harsh life he experienced with his relatives, he finds his time with nature a healing balm and when he writers about it, he writes straight from the soul. I finally appreciate his love for his sister Dorothy, which I have always thought borders on incest. No one can tell the story as well as the one who have lived it.
The Norton Anthology English Literature says this about Wordsworth; “Wordsworth is above all the poet of remembrance of things past or as he puts it, of ‘emotions recollected in tranquility’” (143). William Wordsworth set the pace of the Romantic period.
Work Cited
Donaldson, Talbot E. et, al. Ed. Adams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York. Norton & Company. 131, 143. Prtnt
Everett, Glenn. “William Wordsworth: Biography” Retrieved 20 Oct., 2013
Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth: A Biography: The Early Years, 1770-1803. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1957. 86- 127. Print.
Todd, F. M. Politics and the Poet: A Study of Wordsworth. London; Methuen. 1957. P.16- 18 Print.
