William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Anonymous portrait of Wordsworth, c. 1840–50
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
In office 6 April 1843 – 23 April 1850
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	Robert Southey
Succeeded by	Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Personal details
Born	(1770-04-07)7 April 1770 Cockermouth, Cumberland, England
Died	23 April 1850(1850-04-23) (aged 80) Rydal, Westmorland, England
Spouse	Mary Hutchinson ​ (m. 1802)​
Children	6, including Dora
Relatives	Dorothy Wordsworth (sister) John Wordsworth (brother) Christopher Wordsworth (brother) Richard Wordsworth (great-great-grandson)
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge
Occupation	Poet
Signature

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).

Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published by his wife in the year of his death, before which it was generally known as "The Poem to Coleridge".

Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850. He remains one of the most recognizable names in English poetry and was a key figure of the Romantic poets.