This is to convey my sincere gratitude to our guide Dr.

Shoaib Ekram (Course Co-Ordinator

CC 3.1, Department of English, Rabindra Bharati University). I would like to thank him again for
his immense help and guidance in complition of the project work entitled Wordsworth’s View
Of Poetic Diction In “Preface to The Lyrical Ballads”.

A special thanks to our respected H.O.D. Dr. Soma Banerjee for her continuous
encouragement and support.

Date: 05/03/2021
 The term diction refers to the kind of words, phrases, sentences, and sometimes figurative language
that constitute any work of literature. When it comes to poetry writing, the question related to the diction
always arises. The question of diction is considered as primary because the feelings of the poet must be
easily conceived by the readers. The poets of all ages have used distinctive poetic diction. In Poetic
Diction: A Study in Meaning (1928), Owen Barfield writes, “When words are selected and arranged in
such a way that their meaning either arouses, or is obviously intended to arouse, aesthetic
imagination, the result may be described as poetic diction.”

The Neo-classical poetic diction was mainly derived from the classical poets such as Virgil,
Spenser, and Milton. These poets used to write poetry by using embellished language and particular
decorum. Other prominent features of that period were the extensive use of difficult words, allusions,
the personification of abstracts, and avoidance of things considered as low or base. The poetry of that
time was treated as something sacred. It was only subjected to the people with high intellect and of
high status in the society.

In the preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802), William Wordsworth argued against the ornate effects of his
predecessors and insisted on the essential identity of poetic and non-poetic language. He argued that
poetry should employ “the real language of men in any situation.” Wordsworth revolutionized the idea of
poetic diction by connecting it to speech. Poetry is linked to speech, to the way that people actually talk
at any given time, but it is also framed and marked differently.
Wordsworth prime concern was to denounce such superficial and over-embellished language.
Wordsworth’s aim was to write poetry which symbolizes the life in its simple and rustic state. The poetry,
for Wordsworth, must be like the part of daily life speech. It should be written in such language that
anyone who wants to read it could comprehend it easily. Wordsworth believes that all such ornamented
poetry clocks the genuine and passionate feelings of the poets. He only justifies the use of an embellished
language of poetry when it is naturally suggested by the feelings or the subject matter of the poetry. The
poetry, for Wordsworth, is the expression of natural feelings and these feelings cannot be communicated
with the help of fake and version of upper-class speech but with the actual speech of “humble and rustic
life”.

He defines poetic diction as a language of common men. It is not the language of the poet as a class but
the language of mankind. It is the simple expression of pure passions by men living close to nature. The
poetic language is the natural language; therefore, it must be spontaneous and instinctive. The real poetic
diction, in the view of the Wordsworth, is the natural overflow of the feelings, therefore, it is immune to the
deliberate decoration of the language.

In the preface, Wordsworth is found at variance with Neo-Classical and Augustan poets regarding the
concept of poetry. He is against the tradition and usages employed by the "Pseudo-Classical Group"of
eighteenth century. His basic objection is about the Language used to compose poetry. His very close
associate Coleridge also disagree with him at this point. Wordsworth commences his discussion on his
own poetic diction employed in the Preface through the following statement: There will also be found in
these volumes little of what is usually called poetic diction. Wordsworth "Rakes Much Pain"to avoid
the then-popular poetic diction and in the same breath clarifies his cause behind this deviation. He does
this- "To bring his language near to the language of men".

Secondly, he attempts to express his own feelings and experiences in poems in those a manner that
those poems remain utter emancipated from "False Descriptions". So, he feels his ideas should be
expressed in LANGUAGE- "Fitted to their respective importance". But, such a type of novelty in ideas has
gifted him with a good sense; and this very sense disinherits him of a number of cliched words and
phrases those- "Have Long been regarded as the common inheritance of Poets".
He is also resolved to discard the beautiful expressions use unthought-of by the poets. Wordsworth's
next advocacy is in favour of PROSAISM. He quotes from Gray to show that the language of Prose may
yet be well adapted to poetry. On the other hand, a large portion of the language of every good poem can
in no respect differ from that of good prose, thus he concludes that -"That neither is nor can be, any
essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition". At the same time,
Wordsworth agrees with Aristotelian view that- "Poetry is the most philosophic of all writing".

Again Äll Good Poetry, to him, Ïs the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings", while a dignified poet
writes under one restriction only-he must render immediate pleasure to man only and not as a lawyer, a
physician, a mariner, an astronomer, or a natural philopher. Very task of "Producing immediate
pleasure"by the poet's creation should not be regarded as a degradation of the poet's at, rather, the
beauty of the universe is acknowledge in a more sincere but indirect manner by the poet. Avid reader
must apprehend that Wordsworth is too enthusiastic to set up a new theory of poetry in his PREFACE.
Still, his composition is full of pepetitions and again is not at all free from weaknesses and confusing
ideas. Above all, he himself exposes self-contradiction at the time of writing poems of true merit. The main
principles of his theory of poetic diction are-

1. Especially selected words of conversation used by the common place rustic people should be the
language of Poetry.
2. A Good poem should be purged of "Adulterated Phraseology"through the employment of the pariance
of common people.
3. So, the diction used in poetry must be chosen from the language of the commoners.
4. Past Experience should be represented in poetry being amalgamated with imagination.
5. There is no "Essential Difference"between the language of prose and that of metrical composition.

He defines poetic diction as a language of common men. It is not the language of the poet as a class but
the language of mankind. It is the simple expression of pure passions by men living close to nature. The
poetic language is the natural language; therefore, it must be spontaneous and instinctive. The real poetic
diction, in the view of the Wordsworth, is the natural overflow of the feelings, therefore, it is immune to the
deliberate decoration of the language.

Wordsworth also attributes the quality of giving pleasure to the natural poetic diction. It must not contain
any vulgarity and disgusting element. The poet must, through his language, elevate the nature and human
feelings. But is a striking fact that Wordsworth himself is found not to adhere to this theory at the time of
composing his superb creations like "Ode to Duty", 'Laodamia', Óde: Intimation Of Immorality'from
'Recollections of Early Childhood'., 'Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey', etc. His own
theory has been followed in some of his insignificant poems.
Again, his claim regarding the semblance between the language of prose and poetry has been thoroughly
violated by him in the aforesaid poems of high poetic grandeur. Thus, Wordsworth presents himself as a
kind of an enigma to a naive reader. His enigmatic entity has aptly been unfolded by Raleigh:
" It has been argued that when he writes, he breaks his own rules, and when he writes ill, it has been
implied, he keeps them. But the fact is he hardly ever observes his own rules and poems in which he most
nearly observes them are often among his best."

The greatest paradox in Wordsworth's works lies in the fact that he himself writes in verse as well as in
words of high poetic grandeur while he exerts stress upon the naturalness of poetry and the emotional
force behind creation of poetry; shuns the old machanical rules; and rejects the artificial language of the
Neo-Classical poets.
I was induced to request the assistance of a friend ... I should not, however, have requested this assistance, had I
not believed that the Poems of my Friend would in a great measure have the same tendency as my own, and that,
though there would be found a difference, there would be found no discordance in the colours of our style; as our
opinions on the subject of poetry do almost entirely coincide. (LB, p. 242) Thus Wordsworth in the Preface of 1800
- the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798) had been published anonymously. Although it was Coleridge who
forced Wordsworth, somewhat against his will, into writing the Preface, the attitude Wordsworth adopts here
suggests that he was the prime mover in the publication. Perhaps it is for this reason, as much as any, that
Wordsworth has often been assumed to be the leader in what was initially a joint enterprise. I said earlier that had
he not met Wordsworth we might now not hear of Coleridge the poet. This does not mean, however, that
Coleridge simply followed where Wordsworth led. Undoubtedly Wordsworth had a dedication to his craft and an
ability to pursue a course with a single-mindedness that Coleridge lacked. Wordsworth wrote prolifically all his life
and, although it is not examined here, the later poetry is not all as mediocre as some critics have thought. With
such tenacity of purpose Wordsworth would almost certainly have been a poet of stature without his friendship
with Coleridge; Coleridge might not have achieved what he did without Wordsworth. What type of poetry
Wordsworth would have produced had he never met Coleridge is, however, less clear. The early relationship
between them was, as already noted, too complex to be unravelled at this distance in time. But there are pointers
and not all of them show Wordsworth as the dominant one of the pair. That their 'opinions on the subject of
poetry do almost entirely coincide' is true of the early years of their friendship and this applies both to language
and subject matter. Both poets were in revolt against eighteenth-century diction and what they believed was a lack
of depth and real sincerity of feeling in the poetry of the latter part of the century and the 'magazine' poetry of
their own time. Both detected, as we have seen, a new depth in William Lisle Bowles. Just what they found new in
Bowels may be difficult to appreciate today. Part of Bowles's sincerity is to be found in the language and
movement of his verse. A brief glance back at the short extract quoted from one of his sonnets will show this (p. 8)
There is a simplicity of expression here that both poets took into their own wntmg. There are indications, albeit
slight, that Wordsworth was moving towards a more straightforward use of vocabulary in Descriptive Sketches
(1791-2), which was written before he met Coleridge. Likewise, there are signs that Coleridge sporadically adopted
a simpler diction in his early pieces, especially in the 'Eolian Harp' (1795). Indeed, the subject of this poem could
be a synopsis of the so-called philosophy of Wordsworth's Prelude. In another early 'conversation' poem of the
same year, 'Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement', which is in the nature of a companion piece to 'The
Eolian Harp', Coleridge again foreshadows both Wordsworth's 'message' and the type of language in which he
expressed it in the line: Blest hour! It was a luxury, - to be! How much then did the one influence the other, or were
their minds already moving in the same direction? We know that the two discussed their ideas about poetry at
length, but any notion that Wordsworth dominated these discussions is unlikely. Coleridge was to gain a
reputation as a voluble and brilliant virtuoso talker. He cannot have sat meekly by while Wordsworth
pontificated. It is more likely that it was the other way about.