Wordsworth's preface

• Introduction:-

         The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is an essay, composed by William Wordsworth, for the second edition of the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, and then greatly expanded in the third edition of 1802. It has come to be seen as a de facto manifesto of the Romantic movement. 

    

Wordsworth’s relation to Nature/Countryside Wordsworth is celebrated as the nature poet because of his beautiful descriptions of nature and rural/countryside areas. However, to reduce his work to just an imitation of trees and flowers would be immature.

Wordsworth admired nature/countryside not only because it looked beautiful, but because of the simplicity and beauty that nature/countryside provided allowed people to be in touch with their soul and experience true beauty in life. Wordsworth believed that the city life made the masses dull and stagnant – it had reduced them to overworked machines who failed to appreciate the simple beauty of life. He called this state of mental stagnancy as savage torpor.

           

Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth begins with a discussion of the collection of poems, written mostly by Wordsworth with contributions by S.T. Coleridge. Originally published in 1798, in 1800, Wordsworth added an earlier version of the Preface, which he extended two years later. Because he felt his poems were of a new theme and style, Wordsworth felt they needed an introduction. Some scholars say that Coleridge wanted to write the preface, but never got around to it, so the work fell to Wordsworth instead. As the majority of the poems in the collection are by Wordsworth, this was probably a more appropriate choice, though there is suggestion in some of Coleridge’s later writings that the two disagreed about what the Preface should say. In the Preface, Wordsworth writes that the purpose of the collection was to write poems that dealt with things that happen in everyday life. Most importantly, Wordsworth considered each poem in the collection to be an experiment in language usage, or diction. He wanted to find out if conversational language could be used effectively in poetry.

What, then, is poetry? Wordsworth sets out to define this particular form of art. In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth outlines his definition of the nature and function of poetry—as well as identifying the qualities that make someone a true poet. For Wordsworth, poetry must reflect spontaneity and an “overflow of powerful feelings.” Passion is key, as are mood and temperament. Although poetry must emerge from spontaneity, it must not be written spontaneously. Rather, Wordsworth asserts that a poem should be the result of long and deep reflection. He also cautions against being too concerned with the poetic rules of Classicism.

  Conclusion:-

        Finally, Wordsworth discusses in greater depth the diction of poetry. Diction is basically the use of language, but more specifically, it’s the choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and even figurative language. While diction is important in all of literature, Wordsworth places particular importance on its role in  poetry because it is the poet’s medium. Whereas prose also has characters, setting, and plot to convey a message, the poet’s choice of language, or diction, is the sole means of expression in poetry. Despite this, Wordsworth argues that the diction of poetry and prose is the same, and criticizes the neo-classicists for their “artificial” and “unnatural” language. Passion should drive diction, not ornament, dignity or meter. He wants poetry to center on rustic, humble situations using rustic, humble language. According to Wordsworth, that is the real source of poetic truth and beauty.