Poet · 1770 – 1850

William Wordsworth

Little-Known Facts

  • His poem about daffodils, 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', is one of the best-known in English.
  • He spent most of his life in England's Lake District, which his poetry made famous.

Myths & Misconceptions

What did Wordsworth mean by poetry as 'emotion recollected in tranquillity'?

He believed poetry arises when a poet revisits, in calm reflection, the powerful feelings of an earlier experience — a key idea of Romantic poetry.