On July 13, 1798, while on a walking tour, William
Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy visit a ruined church called Tintern Abbey. The
ruins inspired Wordsworth's poem "Tintern Abbey," in which Wordsworth
articulated some of the fundamental themes of Romantic poetry, including the
restorative power of nature. The poem appeared in Lyrical Ballads, with a
Few Other Poems in 1798, which Wordsworth collaborated on with his friend
and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The book, which also included
Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sold out within two years. The
book's second edition included an important preface that articulated the
Romantic manifesto. Wordsworth was born near England's Lake District in 1770.
He lost his mother when he was eight, and his father died five years later.
Wordsworth attended Cambridge, and then traveled in Europe, taking long walking
tours with friends through the mountains. During his 20s, Wordsworth lived with
his sister Dorothy and became close friends with Coleridge. In 1802, after
years of living on a modest income, Wordsworth came into a long-delayed
inheritance from his father and was able to live comfortably with his sister. The
poet's stature grew steadily, although most of his major work was written by
1807. In 1843, he was named poet laureate of England, and he died in 1850, at
the age of 80.
Michael Thomas Barry
is the author of Literary Legends of the British Isles. The book can be
purchased from Amazon through the following links:
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