Poet. He is remembered as being the “Poet Laureate of England” from 1843 until his death. The second of five children, he was the son of John Wordsworth, an attorney. He spent his childhood in the Lake District of England which inspired him to love nature. His mother died when he was eight and his father died five years later. The death of both parents caused him to be separated from his beloved sister, Dorothy, for nine years. After the two reunited, they lived together the rest of her fragile life. Woodsworth also became the caregiver the two uncles who had ensured that he received an education. He attended local schools, but eventually, attended St. John's College at Cambridge University graduating without any honors in 1791, yet in his later years would received honorary Doctorate in Civil Law from University of Durham and Oxford University. While a student at Cambridge in 1787, he sold his first piece of writing to the “European Magazine”. During his years at Cambridge, he took a walking tour in Europe and met a French woman, Annette Vallo. The two became lovers, and after he left to return to England, she borne their daughter, Anne Caroline in December 1792. With war between England and France, he would not see his daughter until she was nine Although he attempted to hide this relationship from the public, his relationship inspired the poem, “Vaudracour and Julia.” In 1795, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a poet who would become a long-time friend and encouraged him in his writings. The two help to create what is called the “Romantic Period in Poetry,” and their book “Lyrical Ballads,” would become a masterpiece in this era. In 1802 Wordsworth married his childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. The couple would have five children. In 1813, he received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, which gave him a greater financial security and enabled him time for poetry. In 1830, he received a pension from the government. He wrote hundreds of poems but the top ten of his most popular were “The Thorn,” “Tintern Abbey,” and “We Are Seven” in 1798; “Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known” in 1800; “London 1802; “Ole to Duty, “Solitary Reaper,” “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” and “It is a beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” in 1807. “The Prelude” was written throughout his lifetime, was dedicated to his friend Coleridge, and was an autobiographical poem published by his wife three months after his death in 1850. Some consider it his masterpiece but the all-time most popular is “Daffodils” in 1807: “I wandered lonely as a cloud, That floats on high o'er vale and hill, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils.” He often used a figure of speech called metaphors in his poetry, thus giving life and action to an object that could not literally do that action. Over the years, declining health and the loss of loved ones would take a toll on Wordsworth and he never wrote a poem after becoming “Poet Laureate of England.” He died of pleurisy. The 2000 English film "Pandaemonium,” which starred John Hannah as Wordsworth and Linus Roache as Coleridge, is based on the period that they spent writing "Lyrical Ballads.