Wordsworth, born in his beloved Lake District in 1770, was the son of an attorney. He went to school first at Penrith and then at Hawkshead Grammar school before studying, from 1787, at St John's College, Cambridge. Whilst in France he fell in love twice over: once with a young French woman, Annette Vallon, who subsequently bore him a daughter, and then, once more, with the French Revolution. Returning to England he wrote, and left unpublished, his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff - a tract in support of the French Revolutionary cause. In 1795, after receiving a legacy, Wordsworth lived with his sister Dorothy in Dorset. In these years he wrote many of his greatest poems and also travelled. He received a civil list pension in 1842 and was made poet-laureate just one year later. Today Wordsworth's poetry remains widely read. Its almost universal appeal is perhaps best explained by Wordsworth's own words: "poetry is the most philosophical of all writing" whose object is "truth... carried alive into the heart by passion".

William
Wordsworth
(1770-1850)

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth

Earth: la Tierra, el planeta Tierra
dull would he be of sould: [expr. poética] embotada tendría el alma
touching: conmovedor
doth: [archaic] does
garment: prenda (de vestir)
bare: desnudo
to lie/lay/lain: yacer
glittering: reluciente
smokeless: limpio, sin humo
to steep: bañar, inundar de luz
ne'er = never
glideth = glides [archaic] deslizarse
at his own sweet will: [exp. poética] a su dulce antojo
mighty: poderoso

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