William Wordsworth

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British writer, one of the great British poets of the Romantic era, best known for his nature poems and sonnets. Wordsworth felt deeply the kinship between nature and the soul of humankind though he was externally a solemn and respectable man with a stodgy personality. Educated at St. John's College in Cambridge, he took a walking tour through France and Switzerland, inspiring him to return to France where he graduated with a B.A. in 1791. For financial reasons, he returned to Racedown to settle with his sister, Dorothy. There he developed a close friendship with Coleridge, traveling to Germany in 1798 and returned to the Lake District in 1799. He was first published in 1798, "The Ancient Mariner" and "Tintern Alley." In 1800 his famous "Preface" was released in which he set forth his romantic movement. In 1813, he was appointed as revenue collector for Westmoreland and, in 1843, he was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria. While in France, he fell in love with Annette Vallon, with whom he had a daughter in December 1792. Wordsworth received an inheritance in 1795 and married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, in 1802. He died at Rydal Mount and was buried at Grasmere, 4/23/1850. Link to Wikipedia biography