(1770–1850), English poet. Much of his work was inspired by the Lake District. His Lyrical Ballads (1798), which was composed with Coleridge and included ‘Tintern Abbey’, was a landmark in romanticism. Other notable poems: ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ (sonnet, 1815) and The Prelude (1850). He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1843.