William Wordsworth and the Language of the Common Man

I had studied some of William Wordsworth’s poems in high school, but it wasn’t until my English literature courses in college that I studied him seriously. Perhaps too seriously – our English lit professor for the period covering the Romantics through the Moderns had received her Ph.D. in the Romantic poets. Our tests and exams were often snippets of lines of poems – and we had to identify which poet had written them.

Wordsworth as a young man

When all else failed, I always guessed Wordsworth as the author; his poetry had been her particular passion. My guesses were about 85 percent right.

Perhaps it was that experience of studying him too closely that led me away (far away) from Wordsworth until just the past year. Studying the poetry of John Keats both before and after I participated in a Keats Walk in London led me back to Wordsworth.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph: Dove Cottage in England’s Lake District, where Wordsworth lived from 1799 to 1808.