SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEOTY II

WORDSWORTH TO ELIOT

ASSIGNMENT NO. I
“THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS” BY
WORDSWORTH

NAME: REVATI DAYARAM KATEKHAYE

MA PART I
SEMESTER II
ID NO: 21161047
PROFESSOR ANAND KULKARNI
DATE: 24TH MARCH, 2022

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CONTENT PAGES: -

INTRODUCTION
TOPICS OF ESSAY
WHAT IS POETRY?
CHARACTERSITICS OF POET
THE VALUE OF POETRY
DICTION OF POETRY
CONCLUSION
REFERANCE

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INTRODUCTION: -

The Lyrical Ballads was a volume of poems which was

first issued anonymously by Wordsworth and Coleridge
in 1798. Both poets believed that verse stripped of high
literary contrivance and written in the language of the
lower and middle classes could express the
fundamentals of human nature.
The first volume of 1798 was published with a
short ‘Foreward’ in which Wordsworth stated a very
briefly the main points of his arguments. The second
edition was published in 1800 with many new poems
added, and a much longer and more detailed Preface.
It was revised and expanded in 1802 with significant
additions about the definition of poet and the
universality and value of poetry.
The Preface is a revolutionary critical statement
from a poet deeply imbued with the sense of a mission
to free poetry from a hackneyed and artificial style of
writing and take it nearer to life as it is actually lived
and make it an authentic expression of sincere feeling
and mode of experience. Wordsworth is effecting a
break and inaugurating a new era in poetry.

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TOPICS OF ESSAYS, “THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL
BALLADS” BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: -

The subject matter of the Preface can be discussed

under the following four heads: -

1} What is Poetry?

Wordsworth sets out to define his 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.”
Though this is true, poems to which any value can be
attached, were never produced on any variety of
subjects but by a man, who being possessed of more
than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long
and deeply.
Poetry is not the turning loose of emotions and
feelings. Feelings are continuously directed by thought
means, the poet thinks his feelings and feels his

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thoughts. Thus, Poetry is not lifeless artistry or mere
craftsmanship as the imitative rationalist aesthetic of
the 18th century generally pre-supposed, it originates
from and is sustained by genuine and sincere personal
feelings.

2} Characteristics of Poet: -

Wordsworth identifies three main characteristics of

poet.
First, he is exceptionally sensitive endued with more
than lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness
and a more comprehensive soul than are supposed to
be common among mankind. This enables him not only
to feel that which happens to him personally but also
to experience vicariously than which may happens to
others.
Secondly, Poet is ‘a man speaking to men’, this is to
say, poetry is not mere self-indulgence and that the
poet is a social being with a responsibility. A great poet
ought to rectify men’s feelings to give them new
composition of feeling, to render their feelings more
sane, pure and permanent. Every great poet is teacher.

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Thirdly, the poet is endowed with an extraordinary
strong imagination so that he is affected by absent
things as if they were present. Poet himself possessed
a very strong imagination so that the beauteous forms
seen by him once were ever present to his mind’s eye
and could induce appropriate feelings and states of
min. He is a man who being possessed of more than
usual organic sensibility has also thought long and
deeply.
The good poet needs to weld the two qualities of
thought and feelings. The one will not work without
other. The poet is different from the other men not in
the kind but in the degree of his qualities.

3} The Value of Poetry: -

Wordsworth is acutely conscious of the fact that the

poet’s medium is language and that ‘language and the
human mind act and react on each other’. From
Wordsworth’s point of view the poet has a positive
role to play though he does it indirectly by
manipulating the medium of language.
Language in poetry is manipulating to sensitize and
humanize the readers. This universal function of poetry

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has become much more urgent in the modern
industrial and mechanical age.
Wordsworth dives deeper into the value of poetry.
Unlike the classicist, who value art for the sake of art.
But Wordsworth and the Romantics believe in art for
sake of life. That is, Wordsworth sees the value of
poetry as ennobling the reader through the teaching of
moral and philosophical values and ideals.

4} Diction of Poetry: -

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, phrase,
sentence structure and even figurative language.
Diction is important in all of the literature. Wordsworth
places particular importance on its role in poetry
because it is the poet’s medium. The poet’s choice of
language, or diction, is the sole means of expression in
poetry.
Wordsworth wants poetry to centre on rustic, humble
situation, using rustic, humble language. According to
Wordsworth, that is the real source of poetic truth and
beauty.

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CONCLUSION: -

Taking everything in account, we get an idea of

Wordsworth’s theory of poetry as spelt out in the
“Preface” to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads.
His view of poetic diction and Coleridge’s estimate of
Wordsworth’s view of poetic diction would also briefly
taken up.
The Preface to Lyrical Ballad is an essay composed by
Wordsworth. It has come to be seen as a de facto
manifesto to Romantic movement.
This essay mainly includes four main points.
1] Ordinary life is the best subject for poetry.
2] Everyday language is best suited for poetry.
3] Expression of feelings is more important than action
or plot.
4] “Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of emotion” that
“takes its origin from emotion, recollected in
tranquility.”

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REFERENCE: -

1} R.L. BRETT and A.R. JONES, Lyrical Ballads-

WORDSWORTH AND COLERIDEGE, The Taylor & Francis
e-Library, 2005.