Title: William Wordsworth Biography | Biography Online
Headings: Biography Online
Biography Online
William Wordsworth Biography
Early life – William Wordsworth
France
Friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet Laureate
Death
William Wordsworth – The Major Works
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Content: “My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!” (1802)
Poet Laureate
By the 1820s, the critical acclaim for Wordsworth was growing, though ironically critics note that, from this period, his poetry began losing some of its vigour and emotional intensity. His poetry was perhaps a reflection of his own ideas. The 1790s had been a period of emotional turmoil and faith in the revolutionary ideal. Towards the end of his life, his disillusionment with the French Revolution had made him more conservative in outlook. In 1839 he received an honorary degree from Oxford University and received a civil pension of £300 a year from the government. In 1843, he was persuaded to become the nation’s Poet Laureate, despite saying he wouldn’t write any poetry as Poet Laureate.