Wordsworth’s Way of Explaining His Past

“William Wordsworth, English poet, one of the post accomplished and influential of England’s romantic poets, whose theories and style created a new tradition in poetry “ ( Microsoft Encarta 1). Wordsworth began writing poetry when he was still in school, but it wasn’t until 1793 that any of his poems were published. “Wordsworth’s political and intellectual sympathies underwent a transformation after 1800. By 1810 his viewpoint was staunchly conservative. He was disillusioned by the course of events in France culminating in the rise of Napoleon; his circle of friends also influenced him in the direction of orthodoxy” (Microsoft Encarta 4). Wordsworth’s poetic vision and inspirations dulled as he became older. “His later, more rhetorical, moralistic poems cannot be compared to the lyrics of his youth, although a number of them are illumined by the spark of his former greatness” (Microsoft Encarta 4). “Ode: Intentions of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” was written during his residence at Town-end, Grasmere. The ideas and the structure of this poem are sufficiently self explainable but there may be no harm in adverting to particular feelings or experiences of his own mind on which the structure of the poem partly rests.

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