At a
Glance
William Wordsworth
[1770-1850]
 Born in Cockermouth,
England was the pioneer and central figure of the English poetry in the Romantic Era, his
effort was a brief flowering of creative spirit midway between the collapse of 18th
century authoritarianism and of the Victorian Era.
His contribution to literature
was threefold. Firstly formulated a new attitude towards nature. Secondly, he probed
deeply into his own sensibility, and during his time poetry was central to human
experience. In his own words it is nothing less than "the first and last of all human
knowledge. It is as immortal as the heart of man." Once, De Quincy wrote of
Wordsworth; "Up to 1820 the name of Wordsworth was trampled underfoot; from 1820 to
1830 it was militant; from 1830 to 1835 it has been triumphant." According to Byron
and Shelly, he was simple and dull. Keats doubted what he called the egotistical sublime
Hazlitt and Browning deplored him as The Lost Leader, who gave up his early radical faith.
However, their allegations were counterbalanced by the enormous and lasting popularity of
his poetry’s, which according to Mathew Arnold, is "an expression in an age of
doubt of the transcendent in nature and the good in man."
Thus, Wordsworth, who was able
to create some of the greatest English poetry of his century undoubtedly, matched the
creativity of John Milton, who stands next only to Shakespeare in the world of English
Literature and Poetry.
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