William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet credited with launching the Romantic Movement with his publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Some of Wordsworth's most famous works include Tintern Abbey, a poem inspired by his walking tour along the River Wye that employs philosophical engagement with nature; Daffodils, inspired by Wordsworth seeing a field of daffodils and becoming his most famous lyric; and The Solitary Reaper, a ballad inspired by a reaper's song in Scotland that focuses on the tone and beauty of the singer. Wordsworth's poems emphasized the value of childhood experience and celebrating nature with childlike innocence.

1. William Wordsworth
Introduction
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet. He is credited with the launching of the English Romantic
Movement with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth
wrote several poems that represented the mood of the contemporary Europe. However, he is best known for The
Prelude. This semiautobiographical collection of poems is considered Wordsworth's magnum opus. Wordsworth was
Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death on 23 April 1850. The following are some of the important works of
Wordsworth.
1. Tintern Abbey
“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13,
1798” was written by Wordsworth after a walking tour with his sister in the countryside of the Welsh Borders. It was
this encounter with the scenery on the banks of the River Wye that formed the outline of his philosophy. Transcending
the nature poetry written before that date, it employs a much more intellectual and philosophical engagement. Its
subject verges on Pantheism. The poem is written in a tightly-structured decasyllabic blank verse. It is divided into
verse-paragraphs.
2. She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
"She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" is a three-stanza poem written in 1798. The verse was first printed
in Lyrical Ballads in 1800. The poem is the best known of Wordsworth's "Lucy" series. It was composed as a
meditation on the poet‟s feelings of loneliness and loss. It is an ode to the beauty and dignity of an idealised woman
who lived unnoticed by all others except by the poet himself.
3. Daffodils
On 15 April 1802, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a "long belt" of daffodils. The poem, “Daffodils",
was inspired by this serene event. It was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes, and a revised version was
published in 1815. It became the most famous lyric poem of Wordsworth. Wordsworth described it as "an elementary
feeling and simple impression upon the imaginative faculty."
4. The Solitary Reaper
"The Solitary Reaper" is a ballad. The poem was inspired by his stay at a certain village in Scotland in September
1803. The words of the reaper's song are incomprehensible to the speaker. Hence, the attention of the poet is free to
focus on the tone, expressive beauty, and the blissful mood that is created. The poem functions to praise the
"spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" that Wordsworth identifies at the heart of poetry.'
5. The World is Too Much with Us
"The World Is Too Much with Us" is a sonnet written in iambic pentameter. The poem criticises the world of
the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. The rhyme scheme
of this poem is a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d, c-d.
Thematic Study of Wordsworth’s Poems
The poems of Wordsworth emphasised on the value of childhood experience. The child was seen as the father of
man. As a poet, Wordsworth exhorted the readers to celebrate nature with the innocence of a child. He even equated
the childlike nature with the supreme quality of rustic people. According to William Wordsworth, the “rustic people are
the real people.” Thus his poems celebrated their simple lives along with the beauty of nature.
Conclusion
William Wordsworth‟s profound influence was evidently seen among his contemporary writers. He not only
simplified the language of poetry but also brought about a thematic revolution in the genre. He placed the „common
man‟ at the centre of his poetry, which often advocated pantheism. Thus he can be called the high priest of
Romanticism in England.