William Wordsworth

1. William Wordsworth 1770-1850 • Born in Cumberland, England • Mother died 1778, he was 8, father died when he was 13 • Had affair with Annette Vallon and an illegitimate daughter

2. Losses and Triumphs • Married Mary Hutchinson • Five children • Lived with sister Dorothy • Lost friendship with Coleridge • Two children died • Granted honorary Doctor of Civil Law degrees

3. Wordsworth in Despair • Named Poet Laureate • Death of third child, Dora • Stopped writing poetry • Romantic beliefs, became conservative • Died in 1850 at Rydal Mount

4. Wordsworth’s Works • Lyrical Ballads “Tintern Abbey” • Wordsworth used “real language of men” • Definition of poetry: “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquility” • An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches

5. Works and Themes • Recurring themes in Wordsworth’s poetry: death, endurance, separation, and abandonment • The Prelude • Poems in Two Volumes • The Lake Poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey

6. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822 • Born near Horsham in Sussex, England • Tutored at home • Had a typical childhood • Educated at Eton College and University College at Oxford

7. Shelley’s Exploits • Published The Necessity of Atheism (got him expelled) • Eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook • Often left wife and child • Met Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin single click speaker to hear audio clip >>>>

8. Shelley’s Complicated Life • Left pregnant wife for 16-year-old Mary • Harriet committed suicide • Traveled to Switzerland and became friends with Byron • Claire, Mary’s stepsister pregnant with Byron’s child • Mary Shelley began working on Frankenstein

10. Losses and Views • Son and daughter died • Wrote Adonaisupon Keats’ death • Wrote essay on radical political views • Essay on vegetarianism • Believed in rights of all living things