William Wordsworth
1770-1850
Lake District National Park
Famous for:
Romantic poet whose most famous poem begins 'I wandered lonely as a cloud'
More info:
Wordsworth Trust
Dove Cottage was Wordsworth's home from 1799 to 1808
Early life
The second of five children, William Wordsworth was born on April 7 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumbria. Of his siblings, sister Dorothy and brother John also became poets, his eldest brother Richard because a lawyer and the youngest, Christopher became master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Wordsworth’s father, a wealthy lawyer, rarely took part in family life but he did teach the young William the poetry of Milton, Shakespeare and others. His mother taught him to read.
After the death of his mother in 1778, Wordsworth was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School. The school is now a museum (open April to October) and you can still see the desks on which many of the boys, including Wordsworth, carved their names.
Cambridge and beyond
Life at Dove Cottage
Dove Cottage was Wordsworth’s home from 1799 to 1808. Here he wrote much of his poetry, and his sister Dorothy kept her famous journals.
Visitors to the cottage included Walter Scott, Thomas De Quincey, Charles and Mary Lamb, Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Wordsworth attended St John’s College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1791 having already set out on his literary career – he’d made his debut as a writer in 1787 with a sonnet published in The European Magazine.
In 1795 he received a bequest of £900 giving him the means to pursue his literary career. In the same year met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the pair undertook a tour of the Lake District, stopping off at Grasmere where they saw Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s future home.
Wordsworth's work
The romanic poet's works included
1807 Poems In Two Volumes, including:
- I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
- Resolution And Independence
- The Solitary Reaper
- Elegiac Stanzas
- Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
1814 The Excursion
1850 The Prelude
Ending his days
The Wordsworth’s growing family and many visitors meant Dove Cottage became too small and in May 1808 they moved to Allan Bank in Grasmere. They lived there for two years before moving to Rydal Mount, the home where Wordsworth ended his days in 1850.
Did you know?
Opened in 2005 in Grasmere, the Jerwood Centre houses The Wordsworth Trust’s collection of some 50,000 manuscripts, paintings, books and memorabilia relating to the Romantic Poets.
