William Wordsworth

1770–1850

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was an English Romantic poet from Cockermouth in the Lake District. With Samuel Taylor Coleridge he published Lyrical Ballads (1798), whose preface called for poetry written in “the real language of men” — a turning point in English literature.

His poems draw on nature, memory and childhood, most famously “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (“Daffodils”), “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and the “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”. His long autobiographical poem The Prelude was published after his death. He was Poet Laureate from 1843 until 1850.

Best-known poems

• Daffodils

  I wander’d lonely as a cloud
  That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
  When all at once I saw a crowd, …

• Tintern Abbey

  Five years have past; five summers, with the length
  Of five long winters! and again I hear
  These waters, 1 rolling from their mountain-springs …

• The Solitary Reaper

  Behold her, single in the field,
  Yon solitary Highland Lass!
  Reaping and singing by herself; …

• Upon Westminster Bridge

  Earth has not anything to show more fair:
  Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
  A sight so touching in its majesty: …

• The Tables Turned

  Up! up, my friend! and quit your books,
  Or surely you ’ll grow double;
  Up! up, my friend! and clear your looks! …

• To a Butterfly

  I’ve watched you now a full half-hour,
  Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
  And, little Butterfly! indeed …

All poems (46)

Poets of the same era

William Blake 1757–1827 Lord Byron 1788–1824 Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792–1822 William Cullen Bryant 1794–1878 Thomas Moore 1779–1852 Sir Walter Scott 1771–1832 Walter Savage Landor 1775–1864 John Keats 1795–1821