William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
Manuscript of Wordsworth's 'I wandered lonely as a cloud'
April 7th 1770: Wordsworth born
On this day in 1770, the English poet William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth in Cumbria. He had a difficult adolescence, being orphaned by aged fifteen, though Wordsworth still gained a place at Cambridge University. A long-time lover of nature, partly inspired by his upbringing in rural Cumbria, he increasingly focused on capturing natural beauty and other topics in poetry. His most famous poem, and one which is still recited by schoolchildren across Britain and is one of the nation’s favourite poems, was ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ (also known as ‘Daffodils’), which he wrote in 1804 at his cottage in the Lake District. While penning poetry, Wordsworth remained interested in foreign affairs, and despite being an initial supporter of the French Revolution became increasingly conservative with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Wordsworth became a major figure in the English Romantic poetry scene, and was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850. He is buried in the churchyard in Grasmere, Cumbria, where he lived from 1799 onwards.
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