Wordsworth preface to lyrical ballads. Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Summary & Analysis 2022-11-10
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In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth presents a defense of his approach to poetry and a critique of the poetic traditions of his time. He argues that poetry should be grounded in everyday language and experience, and that it should be accessible to all people, rather than just the educated elite.
Wordsworth contends that poetry should aim to represent the "real language of men" and be drawn from the "common relations of life." He asserts that this approach is more authentic and true to human experience than the artificial and ornate style of much of the poetry of the time. Wordsworth argues that poetry should be a means of expressing the "essential passions of the heart," and that it should aim to capture the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."
In making this case, Wordsworth criticizes the poetry of his day, which he sees as overly concerned with form and convention, and lacking in genuine emotion and feeling. He laments the fact that poetry has become divorced from the everyday lives of people, and that it has become a pursuit only for the educated and well-bred. Wordsworth calls for a return to a more natural and unpretentious style of poetry, which he believes will be more meaningful and resonant for readers.
Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads marks a significant shift in the tradition of English poetry, and has had a lasting influence on the development of the genre. Its emphasis on the use of everyday language and the representation of real human experience has inspired poets for generations, and continues to be an important touchstone for those who seek to create meaningful and authentic poetry.
Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth Essay Example
Wordsworth points out the common characteristics of both poetry and science. The poet, thus, has the gifts of imagination, sensibility, fancy, observation, and judgment. The poem tells the story of Wordsworth as a youth, going into the forest in search of hazel nuts, an activity that would have been very familiar to anyone reading the poem at the time. Wordsworth has favored the common man language because common people live together and are always in contact with nature from which the greatest and the best portion of human language originally evolved. So even though the Lyrical Ballads was a collaborative effort, it was Wordsworth who added the preface in the 1800 edition and refined in 1802. There is one fault that Wordsworth assures readers they will never find in his poetry: the fault of writing about a trivializing poetry. Furthermore, they constantly and randomly change the style of their poetry to suit their own ever-changing tastes.
It provokes the reader to imagine Wordsworths feelings, almost sharing with him the emotions everyone feels when pleasantly surprised by something. At the same time, emotions cannot be separated from thoughts, as the two are inextricably tied together. Wordsworth considers this sort of satire a wrongful way to engage in criticism. Over the years, he grew increasingly prosperous and famous, but settled into a religious and political conservatism that disappointed readers, like William Hazlitt, who once thought of him as a promoter of democratic change. He emphases the importance of feeling over ideas. Wordsworth, in his "Preface," also argued in favor of using simple language that would be easily accessible to all people. Wordsworth also tells readers that if they thought one poem was good and others were bad, they should go back and review those they thought were bad.
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth Plot Summary
Coleridge disagrees with this completely. Even poetry written in simple ballad meter ought not to be lampooned, or satirized. Massive industrialization and urbanization — During this period, London became the urban centre of industrial development and huge masses of people migrated to the cities in search of jobs. Preface to Lyricical Ballads. In this preface, he tells us about the form and contents of this new type of poetry.
Preface To Lyrical Ballads Summary & Analysis By William Wordsworth • English Summary
From this, readers can gather that Wordsworth lived in an era when things were growing increasingly complex with the onset of modernity. He then relates that he and his friends wish to start a new type of poetry, poetry of the sort seen in Lyrical Ballads. In doing so, Wordsworth believes that poetry speaks to the basic idea of expressing the joy in living, reveling in what is seen every day. Through quoting and analyzing these two poems by Johnson, Wordsworth shows that it is the subject, not the meter, of a poem that decides whether it is trivial. At this critical time, a friend died and left Wordsworth enough money to live by writing poetry. W Norton and Company, Inc 2000. Wordsworth unlike the classicists can not separate the mind which suffers from the mind which composes.
What are the main features of Wordsworth's "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads?
Since it was his idea, Coleridge was supposed to write the Preface; but, he never did; leaving Wordsworth to write it under a very harsh time crunch Shulz. However, their methods are slightly different. Scholars have debated the reason for this decline. This, combined with his disillusionment with the Revolution, led Wordsworth to the verge of an emotional breakdown. Poetry ought to be a profound experience. He died in 1850 at the ripe age of eighty, and famed poet Alfred Lord Tennyson succeeded him as poet laureate.
Have you read these? What is a poem? He emphasizes various points stating his opinion regarding poetry of the time. It balances creativity with the ordinary which, when combined with common setting and speech, elevates Wordsworths work above many of his contemporaries, and increases its appeal to commoners and scholars alike. Such poetry emphasized the deeds of great men and allusions to works of classical antiquity. There might be a gap of many years between the initial or primary sense of emotions and the contemplation of it. The pleasure of poetry elevates and edifies readers. Many young admirers regarded his conversion to the established powers as fully evident when he took the post of stamp distributor.
A poet should not write for his own fulfillment and delight but should share his ideas and emotions with his readers. In both of these, Wordsworth feels that poetry will be able to capture the imagination of the reader. He portrays the passions and feelings of other human beings sharply. Again the truth of science is subject to change while poetry does not suffer from such threat. Reading and judging poetry is an acquired talent, and a review would only be just to the poet. Here, he talks about the way he writes, calling good poetry the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings 242.
This sort of poetry will help people become better people. That is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry. T Coleridge turned out to be a milestone work in the history of English literature. Wordsworth wrote prolifically throughout his life, but it appeared that after 1807, his poetic sensibility declined. He is not sure yet which of his expressions are faulty; thus, he refrains from correcting anything. He writes: Then up I rose,And dragged to earth both branch and bout, with crashAnd merciless ravage: and the shady nookOf hazels, and the green and mossy bower,Deformed and sullied, patiently gave upTheir quiet beings 43-48 :Once again, the style is read with ease, but the actual image stimulates thought. The subject matter of poetry: William Wordsworth states that his content has been events and circumstances from daily life.
Preface to Lyrical Ballads summary & analysis : Thinking Literature by Shyam
He beautifully discovers that science only appeal to intellect while poetry appeals to heart. But Wordsworth strongly opposes this view and thinks that the mind of the poet is never a passive recorder. This is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry. People tend to read poetry, and not prose, over and over again because of this pleasure. Accordingly, his emotions and feelings are more passionate.
Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads as a manifesto of Romantic Movement
Wordsworth reiterates that there is no essential difference between the language of poetry and the language of prose. In this, Wordsworth outlines the feature of emotional connection that is a part of the poetic experience. He conceived of the poet in Miltonic terms, as a person conveying the ways of God to men. Wordsworth also expresses frustration that many poetic phrases have become hackneyed from overuse and have lost their original meaning. This is unfair to the reader and can make it difficult for the reader to truly understand what the poet is trying to say. Other than these larger ideas about poetry, Wordsworth also briefly digresses into the importance of meter. This is similar to what Coleridge claims about the artificiality of aristocratic taste.
