7 April 1770: William Wordsworth is born

William Wordsworth, one of the leading Romantic poets, was born on 7 April 1770, in Cockermouth, England. He was the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and his wife, Ann. His sister, Dorothy, who he was close to all his life, was born the following year, and the two were baptised together. Wordsworth’s birthplace nestled in the picturesque Lake District would later influence much of his poetry.

An idyllic childhood was interrupted by the early death of his mother when he was only 8 years old, and the boy was sent to live with relatives. He attended the Grammar School in Hawkshead where he began to develop a love for literature and poetry and did not see Dorothy again for 9 years.

In 1787, Wordsworth embarked on studies at St John’s College, Cambridge where he developed a passion for poetry and formed lasting friendships, most notably with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. That same year he published a sonnet in The European Magazine.

In 1790 he went on a walking tour of Europe, during which he toured the Alps extensively, and visited areas of France, Switzerland, and Italy. This experience exposed him to the beauty of nature, a theme that would become central to his vision.

Wordsworth’s early poems were met with mixed success, until things took a significant turn in 1797 when he and Coleridge collaborated on the seminal work, Lyrical Ballads. His famous works include Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey and I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

A prolific career would see Wordsworth become one of the most influential poets of his time, and in the later years of his life, he served as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1843 until his death in 1850.