WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM. - English Romantic poet, b. at Cockermouth in Cumberland on 7 April 1770, d. at Rydal Mount on 23 April 1850.
He was in France in 1792 and there supported the Girondins, but, disillusioned by the developments of the Revolution, he later repudiated his youthful enthusiasms.
In 1798 he composed, in collaboration with Coleridge, that introduction to the Lyrical Ballads (1798), a collection of their poems, which is the manifesto of English Romanticism, calling in it, in reaction to academicism and formalism, for a return to the contemplation of nature and to spontaneous and essential language. If Milton had wished to "testify to the ways of God," of W. it might be said that he wishes to testify to the ways of Nature, and even the characters of his work are preferably humble beings who live in intimate contact with the earth. The most original and vital part of his poetic production is that of his youth and the beginning of his maturity. Subsequently his verses become progressively impoverished in the more properly lyrical and imaginative quality. His official fame nonetheless knew a continuous ascent and was consecrated in 1843 by his appointment as poet laureate.
Some of W.'s short lyrics, such as A slumber did my spirit seal (1799), She dwelt among the untrodden ways (1799), I wandered lonely as a cloud (1804), The Solitary reaper (1805) are to be numbered among the greatest of European Romantic poetry; among the longer compositions the most representative and original are The prelude (completed in 1805, but published after the poet's death), The Excursion (published in 1814) and the famous Ode on intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood (1802-1804), poems in which the note of spiritual autobiography and of absorbed and almost mystical contemplation of nature predominates.
Bibliography13 worksamong the best eds. of the Poems, see that edited by N. C. Smith, 3 vols., London 1908; the exemplary editions of the Letters of W. and of h
BIBL.: among the best eds. of the Poems, see that edited by N. C. Smith, 3 vols., London 1908; the exemplary editions of the Letters of W. and of his sister Dorothy in 6 vols., Oxford 1935-36, and of The Prelude, ibid. 1926, both edited by E. de Selincourt. Studies: G. M. Harper, W. W. his life works and influence, 2 vols., London 1916; E. Legouis, The early life of W. W., ibid. 1921; id., W. W. in a new light, Harvard 1933; C. H. Herford, W., ibid. 1930; H. J. C. Grierson, Milton and W. poets and prophets, ibid. 1937; H. Read, W., ibid. 1930 and 1949; J. C. Smith, A study of W., Edinburgh 1946; among Italian studies: P. Bardi, La poesia di W., Bari 1922; I. Bustice, Il sentimento della natura in W. W., Vercelli 1930; E. Cecchi, Il giovane W. e la poesia di paesaggio, in English Miscellany, no. 1, Rome 1950, pp. 71-91; M. Praz, La crisi dell'eroe nel romanzo vittoriano, Florence 1952, pp. 39-50; S. Rossi, W. e l'Italia, in Letterature moderne, 4 (1953), pp. 532-547.
Guidi, Augusto. “Wordsworth, william.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, col. 1714. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954. https://azioneromana.com/article/wordsworth-william.
MLA
Guidi, Augusto. “Wordsworth, william.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954, col. 1714. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/wordsworth-william.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec12_wordsworth_william,
author = {Guidi, Augusto},
title = {Wordsworth, william},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XII},
pages = {1714},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1954},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/wordsworth-william}
}
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