Facts About William Wordsworth

• Had a sister with whom he was close
• Schooled in the tradition literary arts
• 1791 Experienced revolutionary France
• August 1793 visited Tintern Abbey
• 1795 Met Samuel Coleridge

 

William Wordsworth was influenced by many events and factors leading up to his partnership with Samuel Coleridge in compiling what would become ‘Lyrical Ballads’ and his poem contained therein, ‘Lines Written a few Miles above Tintern Abbey’. In large part, Wordsworth was rebelling against academic authority at the time by making this collection. He felt poetry should be for the common man, rather than just intellectuals. In addition, he felt that there should be a response to how nature had been treated in the previous years as rationalized. He wanted nature to be returned to its rightful pedestal as an uncontrollable force. In a similar egard, his poem ‘Tintern Abbey’ was a reflection on recent events in his life and how memories can be distorted with time.