English Romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote "She was a Phantom of Delight" in 1803 about his wife, Mary Hutchinson. The poem's speaker describes his first encounter with a "lovely Apparition," or a beautiful spirit, who turns out to be quite human after all once he gets to know her. Rather than temper the speaker's admiration, however, seeing the woman as fully human makes the speaker love her even more. "She was a Phantom of Delight" was published in Wordsworth's 1807 collection, Poems, in Two Volumes.