_Wrote "The Character of the Happy Warrior" in 1806. It was suggested by
the death of Nelson at Trafalgar on the 21st of October 1805. Wordsworth
did not connect the poem with the name of Nelson because there was a
stain upon his public life, in his relations with Lady Hamilton, that
clouded the ideal. The poet said that in writing he thought much of his
true-hearted sailor-brother who, as Captain of an Indiaman, had been
drowned in the wreck of his ship off the Bill of Portland on the 5th of
February 1805, his body not being found until the 20th of March_.