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William Wordsworth |
In 1791, in the chaotic months that followed the Revolution, Wordsworth went to France, fell in love with a French girl, fathered a child, and had to go home for money. But with the European empires joining to crush the upstart Republic, he was kept from returning for ten years, during which he wrote his best poetry about love, separation, grief, and death. And about Lucy, his imaginary friend. It was a time of great upheaval, in poetry as well as politics, and in 1798 he and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads, criticizing the imperial diction of the eighteenth century and advocating the “real language of men”. The Romantic movement had found its leader. Through his literary criticism and his own wonderful example, Wordsworth made the new rules, even as he shifted from poet to philosopher, and wrote less. And after becoming Poet Laureate he retired to the Lake District. He married again, renewed his friendship with Coleridge, and turned to writing travel books.
She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways
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Immortal Poets: Their Lives and Verse, by Christopher Burns |