In the poem, an unidentified speaker mourns the loss of Lucy, a young woman who died young in the English countryside and whose beauty and virtue were overlooked in life. The poem is one of five in a group critics refer to as the “Lucy Poems,” all but one of which mention Lucy by name — though Wordsworth never acknowledged their connection...More
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.
Wordsworth remained a formidable presence in his later years. In 1838, Wordsworth received an honorary doctorate in Civil Law...More
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.
Wordsworth remained a formidable presence in his later years. In 1838, Wordsworth received an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Durham and the following year he was awarded the same honorary degree by the University of Oxford, when John Keble praised him as the "poet of humanity", praise greatly appreciated by Wordsworth.
Book Summary
In the poem, an unidentified speaker mourns the loss of Lucy, a young woman who died young in the English countryside and whose beauty and virtue were overlooked in life. The poem is one of five in a group critics refer to as the “Lucy Poems,” all but one of which mention Lucy by name — though Wordsworth never acknowledged their connection and was notably quiet on who Lucy might have referred to.
William Wordsworth
