# William Wordsworth — Table-Talk character guide

> William Wordsworth in Table-Talk by William Hazlitt.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Wordsworth, Wordsworth, himself

**First appearance:** 0003-volume-i-on-genius-and-common-sense

## Snapshot

The Romantic poet whose originality Hazlitt admires and whose remoteness from common understanding he treats as both burden and badge of genius.

## Who they are

Wordsworth is the living example of Hazlitt's paradox: a man who strides so far before his readers that he dwindles in the distance, speaking a language they cannot follow. Hazlitt's essay on intellectual superiority reads as a defense of Wordsworth's strangeness—the 'far-fetched ideas' that make him the butt of slander rather than the mark of admiration. He matters because he forces the question at the heart of Table-Talk: is the original mind doomed to isolation, or can the pit still recognize greatness when it sees it?

## In the story

### [On Milton's Sonnets](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/table_talk_se/chapters/volume-ii-on-milton-s-sonnets)

Compared unfavorably to Milton; Hazlitt says his sonnets 'mouth it well' but lack Milton's sincerity and principle.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/table_talk_se/characters/william_wordsworth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/table_talk_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/table_talk_se/characters