William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an English Romantic poet famous for helping to usher in the Romantic Age in English literature with the publication of "Lyrical Ballads" (1798), which he co-wrote with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His best known work is perhaps "The Prelude", a semi-autobiographical poem from his early years which was changed and expanded many times throughout his life. He was poet laureate of Britain between 1843 until his death in 1850.