“The mind being once fixed and roused, all the rest comes from itself.” — William Wordsworth | V2Melody

“The mind being once fixed and roused, all the rest comes from itself.”

Describing the creative momentum released by concentrated attention · Letter to Lady Beaumont, 21 May 1807

Art
Truth

William Wordsworth

About William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

7 April 1770–23 April 1850

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the northwestern corner of England, and died on 23 April 1850 at Rydal Mount in the Lake District. Few poets have altered English literary culture so thoroughly. With Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth helped establish the principles of…

More by William Wordsworth

Poems by William Wordsworth

More remarks by William Wordsworth

“The end of Poetry is to produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure.”

Balancing emotional intensity with the pleasure of art · Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802

Joy
Poetry

“Nature does not permit an inventory to be made of her charms!”

Rejecting mechanical catalogues of scenery in favour of imaginative perception · Conversation, recollected by Aubrey de Vere

“Never have a moment's uneasiness about answering my letters.”

A warm reassurance that friendship need not be governed by obligation · Letter to Sir George Beaumont, 11 February 1806

Friendship