London, 1802 Tough-O-Meter

Sea Level (2)

Wordsworth is a pretty straightforward guy most of the time. If anything, he has a tendency to be earnest to a fault. His poetic mission was to express emotion clearly and passionately – which, most of the time, means using language that all of us can understand. Now, remember that Wordsworth set out to do this in 1802. Language that seemed perfectly fresh to him may look a little musty to us. However, despite its age, this poem is still an accessible read.