William Wordsworth

Wordsworth, William (1770–1850), considered to be the greatest poet of the English romantic period. Known for his descriptions of nature, he derived much of his inspiration from the northern English countryside where he lived. Along with close friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he believed that poetry could come out of actual experience and be written in the language of the common person. Together, they wrote Lyrical Ballads (1798), a collection of poems regarded as the first great works of the romantic movement. Wordsworth completed his great autobiographical poem, The Prelude: Growth of a Poet's Mind, in 1805, but subjected it to constant revision for the rest of his life. The author of more than 500 sonnets, he was appointed poet laureate in 1843.