Wordsworth and His World

William Wordsworth, born in 1770, was the eldest and possibly the greatest member of the English Romantic movement. The English countryside was his chief inspiration - in so much of his work he combined a passionate apprehension of nature with a belief that nature is the source of man's innate goodness. He was determined to express his ideals in terms of the lives of ordinary people, and using the plainest language, which caused a revolution in English poetic style - though his verse rises to heights of splendour, which few other English poets can match. Halliday's biography turns a mighty name into a human being.