William Wordsworth, a major English Romantic poet, accepted Joebar's invitation and appeared on today's Talk Show. He shared a lot of personal information and answered questions from the audience. If you missed it, read below.
The second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson, William Wordsworth was born on 7 April, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland —part of a scenic region in northwest England, called the Lake District. His sister, the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, to whom he was very close his whole life, was born the following year. They had three other siblings.
In November 1791, Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France and became interested in the Republican movement. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who in 1792 gave birth to their child, Caroline. Because of lack of money and Britain's tensions with France, he returned alone to England the next year.
He met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship. In 1797, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy moved to Somerset, just a few miles away from Coleridge's home. Together, Wordsworth and Coleridge (with insights from Dorothy) produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), an important work in the English Romantic movement. One of Wordsworth's most famous poems, "Tintern Abbey", was published in the work, along with Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
Wordsworth, Dorothy and Coleridge traveled to Germany in the autumn of 1798. While Coleridge was intellectually stimulated by the trip, its main effect on Wordsworth was to produce homesickness. During that harsh winter he began work on an autobiographical piece later titled "The Prelude."
He and his sister moved back to England, now to Grasmere in the Lake District, and this time with fellow poet Robert Southey nearby. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey came to be known as the "Lake Poets".
That's Wordsworth story "in brief" :)
Next week, get ready for Pablo Picasso - mark your calendars for Wednesday, September 29, 10:30am PST and 4:00pm PST.
Talk soon,
DJ_Mariya
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