Which Romantic poet wrote the autobiographical epic 'The Prelude'?

William Wordsworth wrote the autobiographical epic poem “The Prelude.” Written in blank verse, it traces the growth of Wordsworth’s mind and poetic vocation through childhood, education, travel, political experience and encounters with nature.

Wordsworth began the poem in 1798, when he was 28, and revised it throughout his life. He originally intended it as a prelude to The Recluse, a much larger philosophical epic that he never completed. The poem was not published for the general public until 1850, shortly after his death; his widow, Mary Wordsworth, supplied the title.

There are several important versions. The 1799 text has two parts, the 1805 version has thirteen books, and the final 1850 version has fourteen. Readers sometimes call it simply an autobiography, but it is more specifically a poetic account of how memory, imagination and nature shaped a poet’s identity. Samuel Taylor Coleridge appears as an important friend and intellectual influence, not as the author.