Birth
April 7, 1770
Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was the second child of John and Ann Wordsworth.
Timeline for William Wordsworth [TC]
France
1791
After graduating in 1791 from Cambridge University, Wordsworth decided to travel to France. There he meets a French woman named Annette Vallon.
War and Goodbyes
1792
Wordsworth becomes broke and leaves Annette to give birth to their first and only daughter, Caroline, alone. The French Revolution breaks out and Wordsworth cannot find a way to get back to Annette and Caroline.
Dorset
1795
A friend of Wordsworth offers him an inheritance which he accepts. "Samuel
Taylor Coleridge met William Wordsworth in Bristol in 1795, and there was an
instant rapport between the two. At the time Wordsworth was on his way to
Racedown in Dorset, where he and his sister Dorothy were to live rent-free,
thanks to the sponsorship of the Pinneys, a wealthy family whose fortune
came from the West Indies, where they were noted slave-owners."
See also The National Gallery
Wye Valley
1798
Wordsworth composed "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798."
Return
1802
Wordsworth travels back to France to reunite with his daughter and discuss future parenting plans with Annette. When he returned back to England, he married a lifelong friend, Mary, with whom he would have five children.
Prelude, Death
1805
Wordsworth started The Prelude, also known as "Poem to Coleridge” in 1799, but had just finished it. Within the same year, his brother, John, died from a shipwreck.
Lost Children
1812
Two of William and Mary Wordsworth's children pass away. Tomas who was six, and Catherine who was three.
Grieving His Sister
1829
Dorothy, Wordswoth's sister, dies from an incurable illness.
Another One
1847
Wordsworth's daughter, Dora, dies from tuberculosis which concludes Wordsworth's poetry writing.
Final Days / Prelude
1850
Wordsworth dies of pleurisy. All his life, Wordsworth tinkered with the poem that we know as "The Prelude" (it was titled and published by his wife Mary after his death). The poem reveals the spirit that Wordsworth derived from his experiences in nature, experiences often showcased in his poetry.