William Wordsworth was born in 1770.
             Initially, Wordsworth was an ardent supporter of the French Revolution. While he sympathized with the French, ultimately his loyalties remained with the English and he became disillusioned by the war once England was drawn into it.
             Annette Vallon was a Frenchwoman with whom Wordsworth fathered a daughter.
             Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, in 1802.
             Wordsworth's "two consciousnesses" represent the poet in two stages of his life; one is his present state and the other is how he was in time past.
             "Expostulation and Reply" is a poem comparing the value of books and nature in our lives. Written in 1798, it is based on a conversation the poet had with a friend, William Hazlitt. Hazlitt is chastising Wordsworth for "communing with nature" as opposed to reading and educating himself. Wordsworth responds to Hazlitt's remarks by saying that all of what we learn does not come from books. Wordsworth had a deep love of and respect for nature and I feel he is trying to tell us that if we take the time to observe and drink in our surroundings, we can enrich our lives.
             "The Tables Turned" again points out the lessons that can be learned outside of books. Written in 1798, it emphasizes the value Wordsworth placed on nature. Although he graduated from St. John's College, he was not enamored with the formal teachings of this period. He seemed to feel that there were valuables lessons to be learned by observing the world around us as well as from books. In this piece, I sense a disdain of formal learning and the role man has in destroying his surroundings. "Love of external nature in its wild and primitive state" was characteristic of the Romantic Period, and is a prevalent theme in Wordsworth works.
             "Tintern Abbey" was the last poem in "Lyrical Ballads". Wordsworth composed the poem in 1798, after a walking tour to Wye with his sister Dorothy. He had first visi...