THE LATE POET LAUREATE.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 463, 21 September 1850, Page 3

THE LATE POET LAUREATE.

On Tuesday, the 23id April, about the hour of noon, Mi. Word9wor h died at his house, Rydal Mount, near Ambleside. He wag ve^y well, and vigoroui for his age, during vhe last autumn, and was in some degree, recoveiing his spirits which had suflered a severe shock from the death of his only daughter, some time ago. About a month since he was attacked with serious illness, from which he never more than partially rallied, and at last he died— so far as such a man can die— en Tuesday at noo i. He had lately completed his SOlli year. William Wordsworth was born in the year 1770, at Cockermouth, in Cumberland. His parents were of the middle class, and he was educated, together with his, brother, afterwards Dr. Wordsworth, at the Hawkshead Ginmmar School. Records seldom lail of early evidences of reintukable talent in men who ultimately distinguish themselves ; and of Wordsworth we find it said, that -it a veiy early age he exhibited a natural desire for study, a habit of tbou^htluluess, and a passion for poetry. Not only was he fondot leci ing the poetry of others (as, in later life, he habitually did his own), but he also himself wooed the muse, from whom he was one day to ieceive the iuspnation which has made him famous. In 1787 he entered St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated. Shortly after, he nude a pedestrian tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy, of which the result w»» a volume of poems entitled"" Descriptive Sketches in Verse." This prodnction was accompanied by another poetical work, entiled the "Evening Walk, an Episile to a young lady from the lakts in the north of England." These toimed together the young poet's disc appeal to the public. They were issued in 1793, and atoiae ai rested the attention of discerning men. Mr. W. afterwatds went to Pdiis, but wus coinpcilid by the " Ueign of Terror" to

return to England. He then made a pedestrian tour in his own country, the result of which was, that he settled down for a short time in a cottage in Alfoxton, in Somersetshire, in a picturesque valley, near Nether Stowey. It was here that he began that intimacy with Coleridge, which so much influenced the subsequent intellectual life or both. One result of this sojourn in Somersetshire was the publication in 17.03, of a volume of poems, which he entitled " Lyrical Ballads." Soon afterwards he went, accompanied by hii sister, on a tour in Germany, where he was joined by Coleridge. In the year 1803, Wordsworth married Misi Mary Hutchinson, of I'enrith. They resided at Grassmere, in Westmoreland. In 1807, Mr. Wordsworth published a second volume of the •* Lyrical Ballads,' ' nd his other poetical works appeared at intervals, sometimes of one, sometimes of two, sometimes of three, or more years. In 1809, he gave to the world a prose work, now almost forgotten, the object of which was to stimulate the national feeling against the French by advocating the war in Spain. In 1814, he published his large work, the "Excursion/ a poem ill conceived in plan, and wanting the interest of a work of art, but so full of isolated passages of grandeur and beauty, so nobly inspired by an enlarged philosophy and eldvated by religious feeling, that even with all its faults it remains a living and enduring testimony to the folly of Lord Byron's hasty and flippant satire. In the year 1815 appeared the poem called "The White Doe of Rylstone," which contains some exquisite passages : and, in the same year, while giving to the world another edition of the "Lyrical Ballads," Mr. Wordsworth condescended to publish a defence of the system on which he ha'i constructed some of his poemg. To this he had bee-i provoked by the strict tures, justifiable, perhaps, in many respects, which had appeared in the two great quaiterly retiews from the pens of Gifford and Jeffrey. His next publication amounted to a practical defiance of those great despots of the literary world, for in his " Peter Bell," and " The Waggoner," he carried his new »ystrm to am extent which, in spile of the poetical power displayed in them, almost shook the faith of those in whom some of his other works had inspired an admiration and veneration almost amounting to worship. His " River Duddon," a collection ot descriptive sonnets, some of which ara masterpieces, appeared in 1820, followed at long intervals by other works, in which the nobler characteristics of his genius were developed, and his attempts to invest with a poetical interest snbjects utterly incapable of imaginative treatment were abandoned* With progress of time his fame grew and spread, the objections of his critical detractors lost their influence, and the true characteristics of his genius were more and more appreciated by his countrymen. To this result the accomplished editor of Blackivood's Magazine contributed in a main degree by his earnest and manly out-speaking on behalf of one against whom prejudices had been excited by brilliant and clever, but superficial critice, who had seized upon obvious caprices of his geniui, but had scarcely given tbeir due weight to his extraordinary and original excellencies, Mr. Wordsworth had early received the appointment of Distributor of Stamps for the counHes of Westmoreland and Cumberland. This, with the tardy though sure profits of hu works, enabled him to live in a dignified independence, in the midst of those beautiful scenes by which so much of his best poetry had been inspired. On 'he death of Southey. he was nominated to the post of Pcet Liureate. In this capacity he wrote an ode on her Majssty's visit to Cambridge. Of the late years of the life of this honored poet, whose name is already enshrined with those of the most illustrious, we havenothinsr further to record. Dying at fourscore years of age, Wordsworth enjoyed the happiness, io rarely given to men of the highest order of intellect, of contemplating the certainty ot his own fame, and of Seeing revened by his contemporaries those hasty judgments which are usually left to the retribution or the contempt of posterity.