The high-priest of
this new poetical creed was Wordsworth: he proposed and expounded it; he
wrote according to its tenets; he defended his illustrations against the
critics by elaborate prefaces and essays. He boldly faced the clamor of a
world in arms; and what there was real and valuable in his works has
survived the fierce battle, and gathered around him an army of proselytes,
champions, and imitators.
WORDSWORTH.--William Wordsworth was the son of the law-agent to the Earl
of Lonsdale; he was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1770. It was a
gifted family. His brother, Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, was Master of
Trinity College. Another, the captain of an East Indiaman, was lost at sea
in his own ship. He had also a clever sister, who was the poet's friend
and companion as long as she lived.
Wordsworth and his companions have been called the Lake Poets, because
they resided among the English lakes. Perhaps too much has been claimed
for the Lake country, as giving inspiration to the poets who lived there:
it is beautiful, but not so surpassingly so as to create poets as its
children.
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