William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, is considered one of the great English poets and leader of the Romantic Movement in England (Wordsworth pp). He was a defining member of the Romantic Movement in England and like other Romantics, his personality and poetry were heavily influenced by his love of nature, particularly the scenic area of Lake Country where he spent most of his adult life (Complete pp). Wordsworth was an honest philosopher who displayed a sincerity that was tempered with a love and appreciation of simplicity (Complete pp). .

             After graduation from Cambridge, Wordsworth traveled abroad, where he fell in love with Annette Vallon in France, with whom he had a daughter, Caroline, although he and Annette never married (Wordsworth pp). Wordsworth was strongly influenced by the spirit of the French Revolution and the principles of Rousseau and republicanism (Wordsworth pp). A year after returning to England, he published "An Evening Walk,"."Fair scenes, erewhile, I taught, a happy child, The echoes of your rocks my carols wild: The spirit sought not then, in cherished sadness, A cloudy substitute for failing gladness," and "Descriptive Sketches,"."Were there, below, a spot of holy ground, Where from distress a refuge might be found, And solitude prepare the soul for heaven; Sure, nature's God that spot to man had given," (Complete pp). These works were written in eighteenth century vocabulary and style (Wordsworth pp). In 1798, Wordsworth, together with Samuel Taylor, wrote "Lyrical Ballads," poetry in which they used the language of the common people, and included Wordsworth's poem "Tintern Abbey," and introduced Romanticism into England and became a manifesto for romantic poets Wordsworth pp). .

             John Petters writes in his critical essay, that Wordsworth chose Tintern Abbey for a "meditation on the relationship between time, change, and the landscape, for even in the late eighteenth century, the effects of time on the abbey were obvious" (Petters pp).