Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress

Wordsworth was always a fan of Helen Maria Willaims' poetry. He owned many of her works, and many of his poems are based off of hers, sometimes nearly identical. He absorbed many of her tropes and styles of writing, and even stole information from her writings. He plagiarized her in his account of Revolutionary France, since he was not in France at that time (Todd 458). He also appreciates and respects Williams sensibility. But I think that in the "Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress," Wordsworth is showing something a little more about his appreciation for Williams. He not only appreciates her writings, but is also enamored of her. This is shown in the poem by very emotional lines like "My pulse beat slow, And my full heart was swell'd to dear delicious pain." This almost sounds like he is in love with her. He also says that she has great virtue by showing such compassion. Wordsworth was infatuated with Williams, and he tried very hard many times to try to meet her. In 1791 when Wordsworth returned to France, he sent a letter of introduction to her with a request to meet her, but she left as soon as he got there (Todd 457). This made him very disappointed. He tried many other times throughout the years to meet her, but did not get to do so until 1820, when he was 50 and she was almost 60 (Todd 456). But in his teenage years, Wordsworth wrote his first poem about his poetic heartthrob and anima, Helen Maria Williams. And it is easy to see from this poem that he is enamored of her.
The information I used in this article was found here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717918
Todd, F.M.. "Wordsworth, Helen Maria Williams and France". JSTOR: The Modern Language Review. 03/17/10 .