True romantic

In the world of literary history, there are few bigger beasts than William Wordsworth. The critic Jonathan Bate calls him “the poet who changed the world”; his poetry inspired generations to think differently about language, politics, psychology and nature.

Wordsworth (1770–1850) rejected the highly wrought formalities of 18th-century poetry, insisting that plain and simple language was far more powerful. He argued that everyday experience, as well as heroic epic, was a fit subject for great literature. And, more than any other writer, he championed the British countryside – both as the subject for poetry and as the best place