He also started writing more prose, at least partly because Coleridge had recently started a magazine that needed articles. William tried to take it all in stride, but it was probably no coincidence that he changed his mind about publishing some long poems he'd just finished. In 1807, William published a two-volume set containing 113 poems 18, which was again given a very bad review by everyone who bothered to review it, including Lord Byron, then 19 and just getting started in the business of slamming poetry. William, Mary, and Dorothy all lived together in their little cottage. After a quick visit to Annette 16 to straighten everything out, William and Mary were married in a quiet ceremony 17. Perhaps because of this, William asked Mary Hutchinson, a friend since childhood, to marry him. Two years later, the Wordsworths discovered they were at last to get the money owed to their father. William also wrote a preface expounding his theories of what made good poetry 15. In 1800, Lyrical Ballads was reworked and a second volume added. It was Romantic, though at the time everyone called it poetry of the Lake School, since William was froom the Lake District. No one quite knew what to make of it 14 it was really nothing like what the reading public was used to. In 1798, they published a joint volume of poetry called Lyrical Ballads. Robert and Coleridge soon had a terrible quarrel 13, the scheme died, and Coleridge became William's friend. About this time, William met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, two young poets who were planning a great socio-political experiment 12. William was very grateful for the bequest, and between the income from that and some money he got from another friend (a widower) in exchange for watching the friend's young son, William and his sister Dorothy were able to live together in a little cottage 11. But some saw potential in them, most notably an old school friend of William's who arranged for a legacy of £900 so William could concentrate on his poetry. They weren't very good, and sold accordingly. These were Descriptive Sketches, a very pro-revolutionary piece, and An Evening Walk. He tried to raise money by publishing two poems he'd written, mostly for his own amusement. He returned to London with every intention of marrying Annette once things had settled, politically and financially 10. He needed to earn money somehow, and in any case, the Revolution was starting to turn into the Terror 9. Before the child was born, however, William had to go back to England. They had an affair and Annette became pregnant. She was a Royalist and a Roman Catholic, but you can't fight chemistry.

In the city of Orleans, he met a young woman named Annette Vallon. The country was then in the early, glorious stages of the French Revolution, and William was only one of many Englishmen who were fascinated by its Republican ideals. He chose his own course of studies from then on, and though he did graduate, it wasn't what you would call a real degree 8.Īfter graduation, William wandered aimlessly through France for a time. They paid for William to go to Cambridge, where he did very well in his first year, but soon realized Cambridge was no place for him 7. The kids were foisted on two uncles 6 who were very peeved at having to take care of them. The largest debt, that owed by John's employer, the Earl of Lowther, amounted to nearly £5,000 of that sum, and would not be paid to the Wordsworths for 19 years. Though theoretically John's estate was worth £10,485, that amount included many debts which people owed him. When John Wordsworth died in 1783, the outlook for the children became really bleak. William was allowed to run wild, and became quite the young sportsman. William was sent away (I think maybe his father couldn't handle him very well) to a grammar school some distance away 5. The Wordsworth children had a pretty happy childhood 4 on the whole, at least until their mother, Ann, died in 1778. William was definitely the wild one of the family, and his sister Dorothy 3, a year younger than him, was usually his only ally in the family. His father, John, a lawyer, was very educated and liberal for the time, and encouraged all his children to be the same. William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth 2, Cumberland, the second of five children.

William wordsworth children