Introduction Which famous river is in the poem “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”? The answer is the River Thames, which William Wordsworth observes from Westminster Bridge during a remarkably quiet early morning in London. Although Wordsworth does not mention the word “Thames” directly in the fourteen-line sonnet, he refers to it simply as … Read more
Introduction People often ask which poem is written for Lucy, expecting one clear answer. The truth is more interesting: there is no single “Lucy poem.” Wordsworth wrote five short poems, later grouped by readers and critics as the Lucy poems, all circling around the same mysterious young woman. These are “Strange Fits of Passion Have … Read more
Introduction William Wordsworth wrote the poem My Heart Leaps Up, composing it on March 26, 1802, at Dove Cottage in Grasmere, England. It was later published in 1807 in his collection “Poems, in Two Volumes.” The poem is short, only nine lines, but it became one of his most quoted works. Wordsworth was a leading … Read more
Introduction The main theme of the poem Tintern Abbey is the healing and spiritually restorative power of nature, paired closely with the role memory plays in keeping that power alive even after we’ve left a place behind. William Wordsworth wrote the poem after revisiting the banks of the River Wye near Tintern Abbey five years … Read more
William Wordsworth wrote the poem A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal in late 1798. He first published it in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1800. This short eight-line lyric forms part of the famous Lucy poems, even though Lucy’s name never appears in the text itself. Introduction William Wordsworth is the clear author … Read more
William Wordsworth poems