1. William Wordsworth 1770-1850

2. English Lake district

3. Basic Bio Born 1770, son of attorney and steward to Lord Lonsdale; loses mom at 8 and dad at 13. Enters Cambridge 1787; hikes in France and Alps 1790 (early in Fr Rev) and again in 1791-2 Falls in love and plans to marry Catholic Frenchwoman Annette Vallon, with whom he has a daughter Caroline. War between France and England, and a shortage of money, keep them apart.

4. Basic Bio, 2 1795 – inherits enough to live by his poetry; settles with sister Dorothy as fellow writer; meets Coleridge; collects fellow writers in Southeastern England 1798 – publishes Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge; begins a new age in poetry 1799 – moves back to Lake District, Dove Cottage in Grasmere

5. Basic Bio, 3 1802 – comes into inheritance from father and marries Mary Hutchinson Becomes increasingly socially conservative, conventional, and less innovative as a poet 1810 – quarrels with Coleridge 1843 – named poet laureate by Victoria 1850 – after his death, The Prelude (his poetic autobiography) finally published

6. What is so different about Lyrical Ballads? Combination of two very different poetic genres – lyric and ballads (narratives) Adaptation of “language of conversation in the middle and lower classes” to poetry Overturns 2 assumptions of neoclassical poetics – That the genres of poetry constitute a hierarchy, with “epic” at top (through tragedy, comedy, satire, pastoral) to short lyric at bottom. – Decorum – idea that language of poem and of characters to conform to their social class or space on the poetic hierarchy.

7. Poetic language and Lyrical Ballads Pre- Lyrical Ballads – Poetic language is distinct from prosaic language Elevated, metaphorical, artful Poetry and poetic language belong more to the educated and the upper classes Lyrical Ballads – Poetic language should be “the language really used by men.” Ordinary people and events could be “poetic” or “tragic” or of literary significance Poetry should be a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

8. She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love: A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! —Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me!