Preface

In his 'Preface' to the 1798 edition of the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth presented his poetic manifesto, indicating the extent to which he saw his poetry, and that of Coleridge, as breaking away from the 'artificiality', 'triviality' or over-elaborate and contrived quality of eighteenth century poetry. The 'Preface' is itself a masterpiece of English prose, exemplary in its lucid yet passionate defence of a literary style that could be popular without compromising artistic and poetic standards. Yet it is also vital for helping us to understand what Wordsworth and Coleridge were attempting in their collection of verse, and also provides us with a means of assessing how successfully the poems themselves live up to the standards outlined in the 'Preface'. The 'Preface' covers a number of issues and is wide-ranging in its survey of the place of the Lyrical Ballads on the contemporary literary scene. The topics covered include the following: 1. The Principal object of the poems. Wordsworth, in this extract, places the emphasis on the attempt to deal with "natural" (rather than cosmopolitan) man, arguing that such men live much closer to nature and, therefore, are closer to the well-springs of human nature. Behind this we can see how much Wordsworth owes to that eighteenth century preoccupation with "natural Man", associted particularly with the writings of Rousseau. He sees his poetry, in its concerns with the lives of men such as Michael, as an antidote to the artificial portraits of Man presented in eighteenth century poetry. The argument is developed when he outlines his reasons for dealing with "humble and rustic life". 2. For Wordsworth (and Coleridge) this choice of subject matter necessarily involves a rethinking of the Language of poetry. Note, however, that Wordsworth admits to some licence in "tidying up" the language of "ordinary men". Does this affect the persuasiveness of his theories about "natural men"? 3. This leads Wordsworth to an attempt to define poetry and its effects on the reader. Wordsworth's project is an idealistic one, and clearly Poetry, for him, has a vital role in educating the mind and sensibility of his readers, a moral purpose. This quotation illustrates how important this benevolent effect is for the reader. 4. Inevitably, perhaps, the above leads Wordsworth towards asking What is a Poet? . His answer illustrates the underlying assumptions about the poet as genius, as special person, capable of re-articulating thought and feeling so as to educate the reader.

Glossary
object The principle object, then proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate and describe them, throughout, as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men, and , at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an uysual aspect; and, further,, and above all, to make these situations and incidents interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. Humble and rustic life Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life, our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity, and consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from these elementary feelings, and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature. Language The language, too, of these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike and disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which with the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intrercourse, being less under the influence of social variety, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of the repeated experience and regular feelings is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by Poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression, in order to furnish food for fickle appetites, of their own creation.

Definition of poetry For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: and though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who, being posessed of more than ususal organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply. For our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our thoughts, which are indeed the representative of all our past feelings; and, as by contemplating the relation of these general representatives to each other, we discover what is really important to men, so by the repetition and continuance of this act, our feelings will be connected with important subjects, till at length, if we be originally possessed of such sensibility, such habits of mind will be produced, that by obeying blindly and mechanically the impulses of these habits, we shall describe objects, and utter sentiments of sucha a nature, and in such connection with each other, that the understanding of the Reader must necessarily be in some degree enlightened, and his affections strengthened and purified. What is a Poet? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than one supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually compelled to create them where he does not find them. To these qualities he has added a disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions, which are indeed far from being those produced by real events yet (especially in those parts of the general sympathy which are pleasing and delightful) do more nearly remember the passions produced by real events, than anything which, from the motions of their own minds merely, other men are accustomed to feel in themselves:- whence, and from practice, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and feelings which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own mind, arise in him without immediate external excitement.
Wordsworth and Coleridge: Emotion, Imagination and Complexity

The 19th century was heralded by a major shift in the conception and emphasis of literary art and, specifically, poetry. During the 18th century the catchphrase of literature and art was reason. Logic and rationality took precedence in any form of written expression. Ideas of validity and aesthetic beauty were centered around concepts such as the collective "we" and the eradication of passion in human behavior. In 1798 all of those ideas about literature were challenged by the publication of Lyrical Ballads, which featured the poetry of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth and Coleridge both had strong, and sometimes conflicting, opinions about what constituted well-written poetry. Their ideas were centered around the origins of poetry in the poet and the role of poetry in the world, and these theoretical concepts led to the creation of poetry that is sufficiently complex to support a wide variety of critical readings in a modern context. Wordsworth wrote a preface to Lyrical Ballads in which he puts forth his ideas about poetry. His conception of poetry hinges on three major premises. Wordsworth asserts that poetry is the language of the common man: To this knowledge which all men carry about with them, and to these sympathies in which without any other discipline than that of our daily life we are fitted to take delight, the poet principally directs his attention. (149) Poetry should be understandable to anybody living in the world. Wordsworth eschews the use of lofty, poetic diction, which in his mind is not related to the language of real life. He sees poetry as acting like Nature, which touches all living things and inspires and delights them. Wordsworth calls for poetry to be written in the language of the "common man," and the subjects of the poems should also be accessible to all individuals regardless of class or position. Wordsworth also makes the points that "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility" (151). These two points form the basis for Wordsworth's explanation of the process of writing poetry. First, some experience triggers a transcendent moment, an instance of the sublime. The senses are overwhelmed by this experience; the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" leaves an individual incapable of articulating the true nature and beauty of the event. It is only when this emotion is "recollected in tranquility" that the poet can assemble words to do the instance justice. It is necessary for the poet to have a certain personal distance from the event or experience being described that he can compose a poem that conveys to the reader the same experience of sublimity. With this distance the poet can reconstruct the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" the experience caused within himself. Wordsworth's critical ideas are manifested in his writing. He uses the language and subjects of the common man to convey his ideas. As he writes in "The Tables Turned," "One impulse from a vernal wood / May teach you more of man, / Of moral evil and of good, / than all the sages can" (136). These lines show that Wordsworth places little stock in the benefit of education or institutionalized wisdom. He implies that any person with exposure to Nature can learn the secrets of the world, regardless of social or economic considerations. In "I wandered lonely as a cloud," Wordsworth uses the sonnet form to express his ideas about poetry being the spontaneous overflow of emotion recollected in tranquility:

For oft when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. (187) This stanza comes after Wordsworth has described experiencing in the natural world the wonderment that the night creates. In the poem he meditates on the stars and the light bouncing off waves on the water. He is unable to truly comprehend the beauty and importance of the experience until he is resting afterward, and he is able to reconstruct the event in his mind. This remembrance brings him a wave of emotion, and it is out of this second flood of feeling that the poem is born. In Wordsworth's poetry, these ebbs of emotion are spurred on by his interaction with Nature. In "Tintern Abbey" he writes that "Nature never did betray / the heart that loved her" (139). Indeed, Wordsworth is continually inspired and led into transcendent moments by his experiences in Nature. These experiences bring to his mind a wide variety of contemplations and considerations that can only be expressed, as he writes in "Expostulation and Reply," in "a wise passiveness" (135). While Wordsworth's critical ideas obviously worked for his poetry, Coleridge differed in his take on the art. Coleridge did not agree that poetry is the language of the common man. He thought that lowering diction and content simply made it so that the poet had a smaller vocabulary of both words and concepts to draw from. Coleridge focused mainly on imagination as the key to poetry. He divided imagination into two main components: primary and secondary imagination. In Biographia Literaria, one of his significant theoretical works, he writes: The primary imagination I hold to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite of the eternal act of creation of the infinite I AM. The secondary I consider as an echo of the former, coexisting with the conscious will, yet still identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. (387) It is the imagination involved in the poetry that produces a higher quality verse. The primary imagination is a spontaneous creation of new ideas, and they are expressed perfectly. The secondary imagination is mitigated by the conscious act of imagination; therefore, it is hindered by not only imperfect creation, but also by imperfect expression. To further subdivide the act of imagination, Coleridge introduces his concept of fancy. Fancy is the lowest form of imagination because it "has no other counters to play with but fixities and definites" (387). With fancy there is no creation involved; it is simply a reconfiguration of existing ideas. Rather than composing a completely original concept or description, the fanciful poet simply reorders concepts, putting them in a new and, possibly, fresh relationship to each other. Coleridge also writes that poetry "reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities" (391). Through juxtaposition ideas, concepts, and descriptions are made clear. The more imaginative the juxtaposition is, the more exciting the poem becomes.

As with Wordsworth, Coleridge also combines his theoretical ideas in his poetry. He abandons Wordsworth's notion of poetry for the common man, and uses lofty language, poetic diction, and subject matter that is specialized. While he still holds a reverence for Nature inherent to romantic literature, his poems are not exclusively based around the natural. He makes use of primary imagination in his work, because it is the kind of imagination he values most, and avoids secondary imagination or fancy as much as possible. "Kubla Kahn" illustrates his use of primary imagination: In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn A stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. (347) The poem is the manifestation of a drug-induced vision. The lines have come to Coleridge unbidden, and represents the creation of a previously nonexistent setting. He creates these instances throughout the poem. Especially notable is the vision he describes in the last stanza, "A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision I once saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid, / And on her dulcimer she played" (348). Both of these segments create entirely new scenes in the reader's mind. Coleridge also uses highly imaginative images to create juxtaposition in the poem. He writes, "A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice!" (348), and uses this image twice in the poem. The "reconciliation of opposites" manifests itself in lines such as these. The adjective "sunny" implies warmth, while "ice" is cold. Together they hint at a darker side to the surfacially idyllic pleasure dome. The simple fact that it is Kubla Kahn's pleasure dome is a juxtaposition as well. The leader of the Mongols is not colloquially thought of as a kind or benevolent man. This discordance, too, hints at the underlying darkness of the poem, thereby exposing a truth that all is not perfect in neither the pleasure dome nor Coleridge's hallucination. Coleridge and Wordsworth valued artful poetry. Although they had some different theoretical opinions, both of them succeeded at making poetry that is complex and dense enough to withstand two centuries of analysis, and modern critical practice has not yet fully distilled the potential meaning to be found in their work. It is easy to see how their work places them firmly in the realm of the Romantics, but it is quite difficult to come up with a single form of modern criticism that can fully deal with these two poets. Mimetic forms of criticism, including contemporary Platonists and Aristotelians, could offer observations about how the poetry of Wordsworth seeks to imitate Nature and the effects of Nature on the individual. He works to reconstruct an experience for the reader. Likewise, these same critics could say that Coleridge's imitation of human beings in poems like "Christabel" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" teaches us something about human nature and behavior. Unfortunately, purely mimetic criticism would miss much of the rhetorical devices and aesthetic qualities embedded in the work. Pragmatic forms of criticism, which focus on the rhetorical purpose of the author, could offer insight as to how the poetry of Coleridge and Wordsworth seek to instruct the reader, and could also elucidate the rhetorical structure of their works. Both of the poets seek to reinforce the individual, the glory and value of Nature, and induce revelations in their readers. Also, as with all of the Romantics, Coleridge and Wordsworth are constantly seeking the sublime. This period follows the rediscovery of Longinus' ideas about the sublime, which describe

how rhetorical structure is used to gain the same feeling of transcendence as Nature promotes. The work of Coleridge and Wordsworth is also rhetorically constructed to express their critical theories, which a pragmatic reading of the text would pick up. The expressive forms of criticism could offer valuable insights into the poems of Coleridge and Wordsworth by focusing on the texts as products of the poets. Certainly forms of psychoanalytical criticism would have much to say about Wordsworth's constant overflow of emotion and Coleridge's chemically altered imagination. Objective critics like the New Critics and formalists could shed light on the synergy created by the interaction of the various parts of Coleridge and Wordsworth's poems. In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge wrote that a poem must be a cohesive unit, with every part working together to build into a whole (390). Both poets pay close attention to form and diction in their work, and create poems that are independent units of thought. Especially the work of Wordsworth seems to precipitate Marxist criticism, which could provide insight about the elements of class in his poems, and could also discuss the connection between form and content in the poetry. Postmodern critics would especially enjoy looking at the fierce individuality of Coleridge and Wordsworth, who each create their own micronarrative of the world while rejecting the metanarratives of their time. The complexity of Wordsworth and Coleridge's theoretical ideas leads to the complexity of their poetry. It is impossible to name one form of criticism that could sum them up entirely, because ultimately they are working with a large number of weighty concepts. This is why their poetry is still read and analyzed. Since Aristotle claimed in his Poetics that the complexity of a work is directly proportional to the greatness of the work, we have sought out literature that withstands multiple intense readings. Because we can look at the poems of Coleridge and Wordsworth in a large variety of ways, we are constantly finding new meaning, which gives the poetry a rereadability not found in lesser work. Re-readability is the hallmark of good literature and of the sublime. Coleridge and Wordsworth knew this, and they wrote toward that goal.

Wordsworth has added a treasure to poetry. In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, he has identified his own views related to creation of poetry and poetry as a whole. Wordsworth is among the romantics who used to visualize poetry as associated to nature and romanticized the very idea of existence of a poet.
For the Romantics, the poet was a seer, a creator and the one who kept the ability to deliver the message of nature to the common people. This article contains an interpretation of Wordsworths ideas as described in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth, a well-known figure of 18th century English society, a representative of Romantic age introduced the Lyrical Ballads containing poems contributed by S.T. Coleridge and himself with the title of Preface to Lyrical Ballads. The preface is considered important for the views about the function and scope of poetry, the role of the poet, the creative process and the language of poetry. In a sentence, the subject of preface is what poetry

communicates and how it does it. Through this preface, Wordsworth announced the advent of a poetic revolution. According to David Daiches, Wordsworth, the first English poet to explain, defend and define poetry by asking how it was produced, belongs to those modern critics who are chiefly concerned with the process of creation.

Wordsworth tells that for the Lyrical Ballads, he chose incidents and situations from common life, intending to make them interesting by tracing in them.the primary laws of our nature. He claims that his selection of language is more closely connected to the

primary laws of nature. For that purpose, Humble and rusticlife was generally chosen, implying that rural life and village communities show human nature in a pure state. He employs a language that is spoken by common men and the reason for its usage is, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions, which means that Wordsworth likes simplicity. According to M.T. Abrams, Wordsworth incorporates in his poetic theory eighteenth century speculations on the emotional origin of language, prevalent ideas about the nature and value of primitive poetry. The preface argues for a new poetic standard. Wordsworth rejected the neo-classical theory of poetry, which arranged the different kinds of literature in a hierarchy, each with its own appropriate subject matter and level of diction. Wordsworth particularly rejected the elevated poetic diction of the 18th century poets such as Thomas Gray, whose language according to Wordsworth was artificial and whose style was unnatural, based on reading rather than speech. Wordsworth proposed making poetry through the selection of the sincere and simple language of the ordinary individual, adapting prose language to poetic uses. He gave poetry a broader scope that included a range of persons and situations never written about beforethe humble and rustic life taken seriously.

In trying to answer the question, what is a poet? he brings a conception of the poet as a man speaking to men but one who has a greater than average sensibility and knowledge of the human nature. The poets main qualifications are not in matter of technique; he is a poet because his feelings allow him to enter sympathetically into the lives of others and to

translate passions into words that please. The poet thinks and feels in the spirit of the passions of men. It follows that poets must use the language of other men. Unlike Sidneys imitative poet, the romantic poet does not so much imitate nature as create in the same way as nature. He brings something real into being in just the same way as nature. Another job assigned to a poet by Wordsworth is to make truth plausible to the readers. Wordsworth defines poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and further elaborates that poetry takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity, which is the opposite of T.S. Eliots comment, poetry is not a turning loose of emotions bit an escape from emotions. The statement that all good poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings occurs twice in the preface and suggests that the poetic creation is an intense mental and emotional activity. Wordsworth emphasizes that this poetic creation needs calmness and tranquillity. According to Wordsworth, pleasure is the state in which, the poetic composition is written and pleasure is found in result. Wordsworth assumes that the reader of such poetry will share the poets pleasure. David Daiches describes poetry in terms of Wordsworth as Poetry is not an imitation of an imitation, but a concrete and sensuous illustration of both a fact and a relationship, which provides pleasure and at the same time shows the universal importance of pleasure.

Wordsworths definition of poetry as the image of man and nature or that it is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, or that it is the first and the last of all knowledge; it is as immortal as the heart of man are all romantic and in the vein of traditional poetry. Wordsworth believed that poetry, like science, should reveal general truths, particularly truths about human nature. Since for him, there is no difference between truth of the man of science and truth of the poet, it means that in their common pursuit, they use only different methods. The scientists and poets are not opposites or enemies, they are allies whose task is the same but use different means to achieve it. Wordsworth reinforces that there is no essential difference between the language of course and metrical composition (poetry). According to him, it is the feelings that give attraction to poetry not tools such as meter. For romantics, poetry is a name of behaviour, a state of being, a whole attitude to pass life. They were inspired by their own lives. The centre of their inspiration was their own self. Wordsworths preface emphasizes a relationship between a poet and his poem, which is the romantic ideal.

Read more: http://bookstove.com/poetry/william-wordsworth%e2%80%99s-preface-to-the-lyricalballads/#ixzz1if6Dnea3