Wordsworth was born in Kirkmouth, a water town in Cumberland, England. The beautiful natural scenery in his hometown cultivated Wordsworth's deep love for nature, which became the source of his literary and artistic inspiration and imagination. 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy annuity from a friend, which ensured his life and made it possible for him to return to nature, so he and his sister Dorothy moved to the countryside.
He met Coleridge in 1797, and then they published lyric songs together (1798). This collection of poems is in contradiction with the classical creative principles of elegance, wit, clarity and order adhered to by poets in the18th century. Formally abandon heroic couplets); In the hands of alexander pope (1668— 1774); Describe the ordinary life of the humble in content. This collection of poems is generally regarded as the beginning of English romanticism.
1800, the second edition of Lyric Songs was published, and Wordsworth wrote a famous preface for it, which later became the declaration of the Romantic Poetry Movement. In the preface, he put forward a new proposition of romantic poetry: ① "All good poems are the natural expression of strong feelings", which is "recalling in peace"; ② Poetry should not only write great historical events, but also "events and scenes in ordinary life"; (3) The language of poetry should exclude elegant and outdated words, and should be the "real language" used by people; A poet should have imagination, because imagination can "present everyday things in his mind in an unusual state".
Under this understanding, Wordsworth left a lot of beautiful lyric poems praising natural scenery and great works exploring people's spiritual journey. Today, people are chanting "I Wander Alone Like a Cloud", "To the Cuckoo", "The Lonely Harvester" and "Tinden Abbey", which is one of the most important works in English romantic poetry, both in content and poetic art.
Later, Wordsworth's creativity gradually declined with the rise of his reputation and status. Nevertheless, Wordsworth devoted his life to poetry, and he expressed his profound thoughts in plain language. The philosophy he touched on in landscape memory and his obvious passion in plain life left precious poetry wealth for readers from generation to generation. It can be said that Wordsworth is one of the five or six or three or four greatest poets in the history of English literature.