As the Poet Biography of this study guide mentions, William Wordsworth is a major figure of English Romanticism, a literary, philosophical, and artistic movement that began in the early 1800s. English Romanticism has its origins in the French Revolution of 1789, when Enlightenment values like reason and order inspired more disillusion in Europe than faith and a sense of stability.

The Romantic aesthetic involves placing a high value on the creativity of the artist, whose originality is paramount. Additionally, the disordered and unpredictable power of nature is contrasted with the regimented approach to society that characterized the Enlightenment mindset. Wordsworth’s individuality and his attachment to the natural landscape of England assure his role as the father of English Romanticism.

Wordsworth, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Blake, represent the first generation of Romantic poets, and their ouvres reveal their indebtedness to classical poetry. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats are the leaders of the second generation of Romantic poets, and their writing reveals more of their own personal emotion and experience.

English Romanticism continues to inspire contemporary artists and writers, and today’s environmental movement can be credited in part to the Romantics and their sense of ethical stewardship towards nature.