Wordsworth’s French Secret (The Poet Wasn’t So Pure)

William Wordsworth is famous for being the “High Priest of Nature.” We picture him as a stuffy, moralizing old man wandering the Lake District, sniffing daffodils and judging the youth for being too loud.
But before he was the boring uncle of Romanticism, he was a 21-year-old revolutionary with a very messy love life.
In 1791, young Wordsworth went to France. He didn’t just fall in love with the French Revolution; he fell in love with a French woman named Annette Vallon. It was a passionate, whirlwind romance amidst the chaos of falling guillotines.
Annette got pregnant. Wordsworth was going to be a father.
But then, war broke out between England and France. Wordsworth had to flee back to England, leaving a pregnant Annette behind. Because of the war, he couldn’t return for years.
When he finally became the famous “Poet of Nature,” he worked very hard to scrub this chapter from his public image. He became the voice of conservative morality, all while hiding a secret, illegitimate daughter across the channel. He eventually supported Caroline financially and later met her, but for decades, the “pure” poet lived a double life.
It turns out, the man who told us to find truth in nature had a little trouble telling the truth himself.
Is Wordsworth a hypocrite or a victim of history? We dig into the details this Wednesday.