Here are the important questions and answers about William Wordsworth life and works (Daffodils, The Solitary Reaper, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude). It will help you to prepare questions about literature and English poetry.
Q1: When was William Wordsworth born?
Answer: He was born on 7th April 1770.
Q2: Where was William Wordsworth born?
Answer: He was born in Cockermouth, England.
Q3: How Wordsworth defined poetry?
Answer: “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”.
Q4: Who helped Wordsworth in writing Lyrical Ballads?
Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped Wordsworth in writing Lyrical Ballads.
Q5: When was William Wordsworth appointed as poet laureate?
Answer: In 1843
Q6: What is the form of the poem The Solitary Reaper?
Answer: It is in the form of a lyrical Ballad.
Q7: In which year The Solitary Reaper was published?
Answer: The Solitary Reaper was published in 1807.
Q8: What is The Solitary Reaper about?
Answer: The Solitary Reaper is about a Scottish girl who is working and singing in her fields.
Q9: When was Preface to Lyrical Ballads published?
Answer: It was first published in 1798 and the second edition was published in 1800.
Q10: Which poet work Wordsworth did not admire?
Answer: Alexander Pope
Q11: With whom William Wordsworth wrote “ We Are Seven” ?
Answer: Samuel Coleridge
Q12: Which poem of William Wordsworth is considered his greatest autobiographical epic?
Answer: The Prelude is considered Wordsworth’s greatest autobiographical epic.
Q13: What is another name for Wordsworth poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
Answer: Daffodils
Q14: What inspired Wordsworth to write Daffodils?
Answer: Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across Daffodils (flowers) on 15 April 1802. it inspired him to write a poem on it.
Q15: When was the poem Daffodils is written?
Answer: It is written between 1804 and 1807 and published in 1807.
Q16: In which poem Wordsworth is addressing John Milton?
Answer: London 1802
Q17: What Wordsworth wants Milton to do in the poem London 1802 ?
Answer: He wants Milton to show England how to be virtuous again.
Q18: What kind of imagery Wordsworth uses to describe Milton?
Answer: Natural Imagery
Q 19: What is the best term to describe Wordsworth?
Answer: A “Lake Poet”.
Q20: Who are Lake Poets and why they are named as?
Answer: William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and Robert Southey are considered Lake Poets. They are the key figure of the Romantic period of English literature. They are named “Lake Poets” after the Lake District in the north-west of England where they lived.
Q21: With Whom Wordsworth wrote “We Are Seven” with?
Answer: Samuel Coleridge
Q22: When did Wordsworth die?
Answer: 23rd April 1850
Q23: Who said that William Wordsworth’s poetry is the reality; his philosophy…is the illusion?
Answer: Mathew Arnold
Q24: Where did Wordsworth die?
Answer: Rydal Mount, England
Q25: What is Wordsworth’s theory of poetry?
Answer: Poetry is nothing but “the emotion recollected in tranquillity”.
Q26: What are the opening lines of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
Answer:
"I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills", Q27: What are the opening lines of The Solitary Reaper? Answer: "Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself; Stop here, or gently pass!" Q28: What is the name of the woman with whom William Wordsworth had a long affair and had a daughter? Answer: The woman name was Annette Vallon and the daughter name was Caroline.
Q29: Wordsworth’s poems We are Seven and Anecdote for Fathers are on which subject and what are their styles?
Answer: These poems are on the subject of childhood and are in simple ballad metre. The language is simple and conversational.
Q30: What is The Idiot Boy is about?
Answer: It is a story of low and rustic life. It was one of Wordsworth’s favourite. It shows the emotions of ordinary people.
Q31: What is the poem Tintern Abbey about?
Answer: In this poem, Wordsworth gives us a “highly emotional description of the effects of the outer world upon his own inner self”.
Q32: What is the writing style of The Prelude and when it was published?
Answer: The Prelude is an autobiographical poem and consists of fourteen books. The Prelude was intended to form part of a philosophical work called The Recluse which was never completed. It began in 1799 and was completed in 1805. It was published in 1850 after the poet’s death.
Q33: How many sonnets William Wordsworth wrote?
Answer: Wordsworth wrote approximately five hundred sonnets.
Q34: Why Coleridge criticized The Preface to Lyrical Ballad?
Answer: Coleridge criticized its latter half for obscurity and extreme elaboration of diction.
Q35: Lyrical Ballads sought a balance between commonplace and….?
Answer: Supernatural
Q36: William Wordsworth in his poems “The Old Cumberland Beggar” and “The Leech Gatherer” give an account of which kind of people?
Answer: He gives a detailed account of ordinary people.
