The name is at once arbitrary and convenient.
Wordsworth was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, which he entered
in 1787; but whenever he could escape from academic restraints, he
indulged his taste for pedestrian excursions: during these his ardent mind
became intimate and intensely sympathetic with nature, as may be seen in
his _Evening Walk_, in the sketch of the skater, and in the large
proportion of description in all his poems.
It is truer of him than perhaps of any other author, that the life of the
man is the best history of the poet. All that is eventful and interesting
in his life may be found translated in his poetry. Milton had said that
the poet's life should be a grand poem. Wordsworth echoed the thought:
If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven,
Then to the measure of that Heaven-born light,
Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content.
He was not distinguished at college; the record of his days there may be
found in _The Prelude_, which he calls _The Growth of a Poet's Mind_.
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