William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads Unit 9

UNIT 9: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: PREFACE TO

LYRICAL BALLADS
UNIT STRUCTURE:
9.1 Learning Objectives
9.2 Introduction
9.3 William Wordsworth: The Critic (His Life and Works)
9.4 Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads
9.5 Important Concepts of the Text
9.6 Reception of Wordsworth as a Critic
9.7 Let us Sum up
9.8 Further Reading
9.9 Answers to Check Your Progress (Hints Only)
9.10 Possible Questions

9.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

After going through this unit, you will be able to

• contextualise Preface to Lyrical Ballads in the history of
English criticism
• understand the role of Wordsworth in the development of
Romanticism in English literature
• distinguish the basic concerns of the Romantic period from
the Neoclassical
• explore the themes like poetic diction, poetic creation,
imagination as expressed by Wordsworth
• evaluate Wordsworth as a literary critic

9.2 INTRODUCTION
This unit deals with William Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical
Ballads. Though Wordsworth is more popular as a poet than as a critic,
he has made a seminal contribution to the development of Romantic
literary criticism through his Preface to Lyrical Ballads. As a major
Romantic poet, Wordsworth, along with S. T. Coleridge, is regarded as
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the founder of the Romantic Age in English literature. The publication of

their joint volume of poetry Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is a groundbreaking
moment in the history of English literature as it challenged many
established norms about the object, subject matter and the language of
poetry. Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads was a defence against
the vehement criticism posed by a section of the contemporary critics.
Though Wordsworth was not a critic, both by temperament and training,
his Preface to Lyrical Ballads came to be called the ‘manifesto’ of English
Romantic criticism because of the fact that this essay explained quite
clearly most of the basic concerns of Romantic literature in England.
Besides, the stance he took against the neo-classical notion of poetic
diction is unprecedented among his contemporaries. Apart from this,
Wordsworth indulges in the age-old debate of understanding the function
of poetry and the poets in human societies. All these considerations
make the Preface an important document in English literature. This unit
shall provide you with some basic information and understanding of the
text. Try to relate what you learn with the socio-cultural and political
context of the work. You can follow the books mentioned below in this unit
as part of your exercise.

9.3 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: THE CRITIC

In Unit 3 of Block 1 of the previous Course, we have read about

the life and works of William Wordsworth in sufficient detail. However, to
help you recollect some of the important aspects of Wordsworth’s life
and works, we shall, in this section, only touch upon the important
milestones in Wordsworth’s life and works.
Wordsworth was born on 7th April 1770 to John Wordsworth and
Ann Cookson in Cockermouth, the Lake District. His early childhood
experience with the world of nature conditioned the development of his
emotional, intellectual and aesthetic sensibility. His imaginative
explorations and revisits of these childhood experiences helped him
realise the intimate bond between Man and Nature, which remains one
of the most prominent themes of his poetic exercise. Wordsworth’s early
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education and introduction of poetry was done by his father. He, despite
being rarely at home, introduced William to the poetry of Milton,
Shakespeare and Spenser, and allowed him to use his own library.
William used to spend a good many hours reading in the library.
William made his debut as a poet in The European Magazine in
1787 by publishing a sonnet. He got admitted to St John’s College,
Cambridge, in 1787 and came out after being awarded the B.A. degree
in 1791. He developed the habit of travelling to different places famous for
their beauty and landscape in his holidays. He went on a walking tour in
1790 across Europe and extensively travelled through the Alps along with
visiting the nearby areas of France, Switzerland, and Italy. His stay at
France and a trip to Switzerland helped him to come closer to the socio-
political changes taking place around that time in Europe.
After returning to England, Wordsworth started living a very
unhappy and unsettled life for a couple of years. His first published works
An Evening Walk and Descriptive Works, which came out in 1793, were
poorly received. The violent course of events in France broke his dreams
of the transformation of the world into a new world of liberty. The war
between England and France made him refigure his political loyalties and
beliefs. During this period, he met Godwin, had frequent conversations
with him and found himself mesmerized with his ideas. However,
Wordsworth could not reconcile his idea of the actuality of life with
Godwin’s insistence on the ascendance of Reason over feelings.
In 1795, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset and they
would soon become close friends. Wordsworth moved to Alfoxton House
at Somerset along with his sister Dorothy. Their new home would be just
a few miles away from Nether Stowey where Coleridge lived. Both friends
together published Lyrical Ballads in the autumn of 1798, which would
later prove to be an important catalyst in the development of
Romanticism in English literature. Wordsworth terms his poems
published in this volume as some ‘experimental’ works of poetry in his
“Preface to Lyrical Ballads”. The publication of this volume is regarded as

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a path breaking moment in the history of English literature. This collection

included some parts of his earlier compositions along with a few
delightful lyrics like “I heard a thousand blended notes”, “It is the first mild
day of March”, “Expostulation and Reply” and the most celebrated long
poem called “Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey”. However,
the collection also included, as the title suggests, a few ballads too. The
language in these poems is simple, often non-poetic. Most of the words
are taken from everyday usages and colloquial language; even many of
his ballads are partly made of conversations. His “Preface to Lyrical
Ballads” was attached with the second edition of the book published in
1800. The “Preface” was edited and augmented significantly in the 1802
edition. Considered a central work of Romantic literary theory this
“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” offers a detailed discussion of what
Wordsworth believes as the elements of a new type of poetry, which
would be based on the “real language of men” and which would avoid the
poetic diction of much 18th century poetry.
Wordsworth was awarded with an honorary Doctor of Civil Law
degree from Durham University in 1838 and from Oxford University in
1839. He was awarded a civil list pension amounting to £300 a year by
the government. After the death of Robert Southey in 1843, Wordsworth
was offered the honour of being the Poet Laureate.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Q 1: Write a short note on Lyrical Ballads.

Q 2: Why is Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical
Ballads is so significant?

9.4 WORDSWORTH: “PREFACE TO LYRICAL

BALLADS”
We have already come to know that the “Preface to Lyrical
Ballads” was attached to the second publication of the Lyrical Ballads in
1800, and was later substantially modified in the 1802 edition of the
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volume. It was further edited in the 1815. This “Preface” later came to be
regarded as the ‘manifesto’ of English Romantic criticism because it had
commented on some of the vital issues connected to poetry and its
relation to man, nature and the poet himself. Wordsworth, neither by
temperament nor by training, had the qualification to be a critic. He was
dragged into criticism by the vehement attack he witnessed by the neo-
classical critics of the Edinburgh and the Quarterly Reviews on the
poems published in his Lyrical Ballads. He had to take to writing criticism
in sheer self-defence. In all of his publications as parts of the “Preface”,
Wordsworth concentrated on the subject of poetic diction and his view of
poetry.
In the very first paragraph itself, Wordsworth clarifies to the
readers of Lyrical Ballads that it was published as an ‘experiment’ to
ascertain a sort of ‘pleasure’ that ‘a Poet may rationally endeavour to
impart’ by using the ‘real language of men in a state of vivid sensation’.
Wordsworth expresses his satisfaction with the experiment as he
observes that a greater number of readers have liked his poems in the
volume than he expected. What he thinks about the volume is that it
consists of a class of poetry well adapted to ‘interest mankind
permanently’ and important in the quality and multiplicity of its ‘moral
relations’. In this context, the “Preface” is a defence of the theory upon
which the poems in Lyrical Ballads were written.
The primary objective of Wordsworth behind the “Preface” was to
establish, as he showed through the poems in the volume, incidents and
situations drawn from common life as the subject matter of poetry. The
other important objective was in terms of the great innovation he had
made in Lyrical Ballads in the language of poetry. Rejecting poetic diction
of the Neo-Classicists, he attempted to use the language ‘really used by
men’. The “Preface” offers his justifications behind such a revolutionary
‘experiment’ to examine whether the conversational language used by
people from the middle and lower social classes can be employed
fruitfully in poetry. Apart from his take on the choice of language, the most
important objective of the “Preface” was to offer a definition and his
conception of Poetry. He proposed his views on the nature and functions

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of poetry and the basic qualities required in a true poet. From the point
of view of the nature of poetry, Wordsworth holds that “poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Poetry originates from the
internal feelings of the poet; it is a matter of passion, mood and
temperament. A poet cannot produce poetry by strictly following the rules
and norms laid down by the Classicists. Poetry has to flow out
spontaneously from the soul of the poet. Good poetry is never the result
of an immediate expression of the powerful emotions felt by the poet; it
is the result of deep and long meditation by the poet pondering over such
powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion ‘recollected in
tranquility.’
Another important aspect of the “Preface” is its attempt to define
imagination and its role in aesthetic creativity. Wordsworth is one of the
forerunners in the development of imagination is a creative agent in
literary criticism. The neo-classical literary theory considered the human
mind as a passive agent whose function is limited to the recording of
sense impressions. Imagination was considered not more than a mode
of memory that may bring images from recorded impressions of the
memory. Imagination was also thought to be the agent that can link
together different impressions and form images of objects or things that
do not exist in reality. Rejecting such a limited scope allowed to
Imagination, Wordsworth along with the other Romantics like Coleridge
placed Imagination at a much higher position. For the Romantics,
Imagination has higher creative faculty that allows the human mind to see
and understand the world beyond the material compositions.
Another important point of discussion in the “Preface” is the theme
and subject matter of poetry. Wordsworth argues that any subject that
can ‘interest the human mind’ is eligible to be treated poetically.
Wordsworth extends the scope of poetry, by incorporating themes
chosen from lives of the rustic, humble and common people. Because
the rustic people live close to nature far away from artificiality and vanity,
their language becomes more expressive of the vital truths of life. Thus,
for Wordsworth, the incidents and situations from common life,

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expressed in the language really used by men, can be the worthy subject
matter of poetry. Wordsworth further indulges in the debate over the
function of poetry in the “Preface” and adheres to the views that poetry
is for ‘life’s sake’. Poetry, as he asserts, “is the breath and finer spirit of
all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of
all science”. Poetry, for Wordsworth, is the moral guide who imparts
moral lessons in a delightful manner. In this stance, he does not deviate
much from the classicists’ view of the function of poetry. Now let us
discuss the chief themes and concepts of the essay.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Q 3: What does Wordsworth state about the

primary objective of the Lyrical Ballads?

Q 4: What, according to Wordsworth, should be the subject

matter of Poetry?

9.5 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS OF THE TEXT

Wordsworth’s attack on Poetic Diction

Throughout the history of English literature, there have been
various debates over the suitable language of poetry in different ages.
Wordsworth also wrote substantially on what he believes to be the proper
language of poetry. Actually, he was compelled to write his “Preface”
chiefly because of this debate. His take on poetic diction was an utter
rejection of the neo-classical idea of poetic diction.

LET US KNOW

Poetic Diction:
The issue of poetic diction has been a topic of debate
in English literature right from the days of Chaucer. It
achieved intensity in the time of Spenser when with the inspiration
of Renaissance new modes of linguistic expression were being
developed and a learned treatment of the vernacular came into
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vogue. Poetry came to be treated seriously and the important

poetry in an important language needed a refined diction. However
the vocabularies used by different poets like Spenser, Milton,
Dryden, Pope, Thomson, Collins, Gray in successive years
problematise the issue. Spenser preferred the archaic language to
the popular diction in his time. Milton cherished a liking for the
uncommon in word and phrase.

There can be noticed two types of protests against poetic diction

in the history of western literatures; the first one being that of the
classicists voicing against pedantry and affectation and advocating the
use of polite learned words while the second one being that of the
romantics advocating for the native, primitive and the passionately and
directly spoken words. Wordsworth remains a pioneer in the second
category in English literary history.
In the Advertisement of the Lyrical Ballads of 1798, Wordsworth
stated that his chief aim behind adopting a simple diction for his poems
was ‘to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and
lower classes of society was adapted to the purposes of poetic
pleasure’. He feared that his audience would find him ‘too low’ or ‘too
familiar’; but he was confident that his style would be a contrast to ‘the
gaudiness and inane phraseology of the modern writers’. When he, along
with his friend Coleridge, was vehemently attacked by a section of the
readers adhering to the conservative notions of poetic diction,
Wordsworth had to give his tentative experiment the shape of a definite
concept. In the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads in 1800, he tried to
explain his theory in the “Preface”. He argues that the principal objective
in the poems published in the volume, ‘was to choose incidents and
situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout,
as far as was 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 unusual aspect.’
Explaining why only ‘low and rustic’ life was chosen for this
purpose, Wordsworth states that in that condition, “ … such men hourly
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communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language
is originally derived; and because from their rank in society and the
sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the
influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple
unelaborated expressions.” Thus, remaining free from all outside
influences, men speak from their own personal experience in a language,
which is “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
tastes and fickle appetites of their own creation.”
Thus, Wordsworth raises his doubt over the established norms of
diction by attacking different elements like personification, periphrasis,
inversion etc used commonly by the poets of his time. “The reader will
find that personifications of abstract ideas rarely occur in these volumes;
and are utterly rejected as an ordinary device to elevate the style and
raise it above prose. My purpose was to imitate and, as far as is
possible, to adopt the very language of men; and assuredly such
personifications do not make any natural or regular part of that
language…There will also be found in these volumes little of what is
usually called poetic diction; as much pains has been taken to avoid it as
is ordinarily taken to produce it….to bring my language near to the
language of men.” Within the scope of poetic diction, besides the
common use of personification, Wordsworth includes “phrases and
figures of speech which from father to son have long been regarded as
the common inheritance of poets”, which can be understood as
periphrasis, inversion, antithesis, and other devices and even those
expressions, “in themselves proper and beautiful”, but so frequently
repeated and overused by bad poets that they arouse nothing but disgust
in the mind of the reader.
Wordsworth further clarifies that according to his concept of poetic
style, the language of poetry cannot be materially different from that of

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prose: “that not only the language of a large portion of every good poem,
even of the most elevated character, must necessarily, except with
reference to the metre, in no respect differ from that of good prose; but
likewise that some of the most interesting parts of the best poems will
be found to be strictly the language of prose, when prose is well written.”
As an instance, he offers the example of some lines from one of Gray’s
sonnets “On the Death of Richard West”, which he considers to be the
best lines in the poem, and where, in spite of that the poet Gray’s
insistence on the difference between the language of poetry and prose,
are hardly different from what they would be in prose:

A different object do these eyes require;

My only anguish melts no heart but mine;
And in my breast the imperfect joys expire;
…… ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..
….. …… …… …… ….. ….. ….. ….. …. ….. …..
I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear,
And weep the more because I weep in vain

Wordsworth thus concludes that, “there neither is, nor can be, any
essential difference between the language of prose and metrical
composition.” However he anticipates possible objection that rhyme and
metre would constitutes a distinction between the language of prose and
metrical composition, he offers his reply beforehand, “the language of
such poetry as is here recommended is, as far as possible, a selection
of the language really spoken by men; that this selection, wherever it is
made with true taste and feelings, will of itself form a distinction far
greater than composition from the vulgarity and meanness of ordinary
life; and if metre be superadded thereto, I believe that a dissimilitude (i.e.
distinction) will be produced altogether sufficient for the gratification of a
rational mind.” However, this expression indirectly makes him admit that
there is a distinction between the language of poetry and that of prose or
‘the very language of men’, and that the distinction lies not only in metre
but also in the choice of words and phrases, which in the case of poetry
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must be made ‘with true taste and feeling’. Thus, apparently, Wordsworth
negates what he himself tries hard to promote in the name of the
language of poetry.
There have been raised a lot of critical questions over the success
of Wordsworth’s attack on the neo-classical idea of poetic diction. With
his emphasis on the selection of words ‘with true sense and feeling’,
Wordsworth actually gives way to the possibility of what Johnson called
‘flowers of speech’ arising in the process: ‘for, if selected truly and
judiciously, must necessarily be dignified and variegated, and alive with
metaphors and figures.’ Here, Wordsworth falls prey to his own trap; he
succumbs to the same notions he thinks of rejecting. By talking about the
vulgarity of common speech refined by taste, and dignity and variety
added to it by metaphors and figures, while being used in poetry,
Wordsworth fails to raise his protests. He comes back to the same old
tradition; as Rene Wellek says, ‘Wordsworth actually ends in good neo-
classicism.’ In fact most of his successful poems like “Tintern Abbey”,
“The Immortality Ode”, “The Solitary Reaper”, and many others are not
written ‘in a selection of language really used by men’ but in a language
well refined in intellectual artistry.
Wordsworth’s Definition of Poetry
The discussion on the nature of the suitable language of poetry
leads Wordsworth to critically address the very idea of poetry itself. He
defines good poetry as ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’.
In his discussion on the idea of poetry, it becomes evident that his
assertions are not very clear. We shall discuss this point elaborately
here. His initial definition of poetry as ‘the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings’ implies that there can be no difference between poetry
and the full hearted song of a bird (for example, the song of Shelley’s
Skylark). However, this initial definition is rendered incomplete and
problematic with some other ideas connected to the language of poetry:
the ‘selection of language really used by men’ and the addition of metre
and rhyme to it. Wordsworth does not try to resolve this confusion but
modifies the statement thus: “I have said that poetry is the spontaneous

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overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected

in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction,
the tranquillity gradually disappear and an emotion, kindred to that which
was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does
its actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition
generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on.” It has to
be noted here that the expressions - ‘the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings’ and ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’ – seem to mean
ideas distinctly opposite to each other: the first one happening suddenly
without individual effort while the other recalled to memory deliberately.
However, despite this apparent difference, Wordsworth makes no
difference between the two and attempts to explain the one with the help
of the other. Actually, as it appears from the elucidation of the first
statement by the second, he tries to mean the same thing by both
statements. His meaning in the two statements seems to be that poetry
is the ‘final product’ of the ‘unforced’ overflow of powerful feelings. As
Wordsworth does not try to clarify the problem, the readers have no other
means than reconciling the opposing statements by force to produce
such meaning. However, the second statement seems to be a well
thought-out one and it explains his stand on the idea of poetry more
clearly. In fact, most of his own great works were composed in the state
of ‘recollected in tranquillity’. A classic example is his “Solitary Reaper”,
where a moving sight of the solitary reaper was seen during a walk, it got
stored in the memory, and in moments of calm contemplation, the sight
is recalled and woven in words to compose the poem. In this process of
poetic creation, the emotion originally aroused by the sight was re-
created in contemplation as nearly as possible till it overpowered the
mind completely. Thus, in Wordsworth’s theory, poetry originates in
powerful emotion recollected in tranquillity; and thus it is the product of
the original free flow of that emotion. Had there been aroused no emotion
in the beginning, no recollection would have been possible in the state of
tranquillity and hence there would be no composition of poetry. Here, the
first stage in the process of poetic creation is ‘the spontaneous overflow
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of powerful feelings,’ followed by the next in the form of ‘recollection in

tranquillity’, resulting in the expression in poetry.

Wordsworth and Imagination:

For Wordsworth, imagination is the most important gift that a poet

can have. Wordsworth held the opinion that nature can add in poetry a
sense of mystery and uncommonness in the ordinary objects of nature
and human life. A colouring of imagination upon the common things of life
and nature can make them appear to be uncommon; imagination can
make the natural appear like the supernatural. In the poet’s imagination,
the ordinary objects are so heightened and glorified that they seem
completely transmuted and transfigured. The ordinary things of life and
nature thus assume new appearance and acquire a new charm under
the imaginative treatment of the poet.

The Function of Poetry and the Poet:

Wordsworth believes that the function of poetry and poets in a

serious one. The function of poetry is not limited to the mere self-
expression of the poet as suggested by ‘spontaneous overflow’ in the
definition of poetry. Poetry stands or falls by its effect on the reader. The
poet ‘is a man speaking to men’; if he fails to address men, his song
reduces to a mere voice in the wilderness. The poet’s over-all objective
is, without any doubt, to impart pleasure; but the pleasure in poetry is
conditioned by the situation where the moral gain far outweighs the
aesthetic. The aesthetic effect arises from the poet’s style and manner
of saying things and from his use of metre or rhythm, which, with their
pleasurable recurrence, make even pathetic situations and sentiments
painless. The moral learning, on the other hand, consists partly in the
refinement of feelings through true poetic effects, and partly in the
exercise of the knowledge of ‘Man, Nature, and Human Life’, and partly
in its emphasis on whatever makes life richer and fuller: ‘Truth, Grandeur,
Beauty, Love, and Hope’. A poet is gifted with the greater power to feel
and to express feelings than other common men. Hence, he has a direct

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access to the reader’s heart; and as his feelings are saner, purer, and
more permanent than can be aroused by the same objects in other men.
The reader is induced by poetry to feel the poet’s way in the same
situation and even in others. The reader, thus, emerges saner and purer
than before.
For Wordsworth, poetry is the pursuit of truth; it is the pursuit of
man’s knowledge of himself and the world around him. Here Wordsworth
tries to distinguish between poetry and other human intellectual exercises
like science, mathematics etc. Science and other disciplines are also
engaged in the same pursuit of truth; but while the truths science
discovers benefits humans only materially, the truths discovered in poetry
‘cleave to us as a necessary part of our existence’. It is because, the
truth observed in poetry is concerned with man’s relation to man, on the
one hand, and his relation to the external world of nature, on the other,
both illustrated in ‘incidents and situation from common life’. While the
pursuit of a specific discipline like Botany, Chemistry, Mathematics or
other science pleases the practitioner of the particular discipline, there is
nothing in their truths that can equally please the common man. The
pleasure derived from those disciplines is confined to those only who
know the disciplines. Such truths, being purely the product of the
‘meddling intellect’, are never ‘felt in the blood, and felt along the heart’,
as the truths of poetry do. Thus, Wordsworth arrives at his one of the
most quoted expressions: ‘Poetry (therefore) is the breath and finer spirit
of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the
countenance of all science’.
Poetry, for Wordsworth, is a force with intense affinity towards
what is good and superior. He observes that the chief objective of him
behind writing poetry was “to console the afflicted; to add sunshine to
daylight by making the happy happier, to each the young and the gracious
of every age to see, to think, and feel, and therefore to become more
actively and securely virtuous.” Thus, he develops the general conclusion
that every great poet keeps in his or her mind the basic intention to impart
something good to the reader: ‘I wish either to be considered as a

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teacher or as nothing.’ In this context, we can compare Wordsworth with

Plato keeping in view the common ground they shared in terms of the
educative nature of poetry. However, considering Wordsworth’s recurrent
insistence on pleasure as being a necessary condition of poetic teaching,
he may be viewed as a follower of Horace much more than Plato. But,
again, he seems to echo the Plato in an observation made about his own
poetry and the educative value of them: “they will cooperate with the
benign tendencies in human nature and society, and will, in their degree,
be efficacious in making men wiser, better, and happier.” The benign
tendencies that he refers to in the “Preface” are defined as ‘relationship
and love’; and it is the great function of poetry to promote these benign
feelings. However, they are to be induced in the people through a
diffusion of feelings rather than through a mere appeal to the intellect.
This is the point where Wordsworth differs from the neo-classicists in his
articulation of the concept of teaching through poetry.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Q 5: What is Wordsworth’s take on the

selection of the object for poetry?

Q 6: What is the poetic diction for Wordsworth?

Q 7: In what way does Wordsworth’s language of poetry differ
from the language of prose?
Q 8: How does Wordsworth define poetic art?
Q 9: How does Wordsworth distinguish the role of “Imagination”
in the creative process?
Q10: What, according to Wordsworth, is the function of poetry?

9.6 RECEPTION OF WORDSWORTH AS A CRITIC

Wordsworth was never trained to be a literary critic; neither did he

want to be one. He was dragged into literary criticism by the vehement
rejection of his Lyrical Ballads he witnessed from a selected section of
the literary society. His defence in the form of the “Preface”, which was

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edited and modified more than once, would later function as an important
document to clarify certain basic traits of English Romanticism. In that
way, despite being accidentally forced to the field of literary criticism,
Wordsworth offers the ‘manifesto’ of English Romanticism in the form of
the “Preface”. His attack on the neo-classical Poetic Diction is a path-
breaking as well as eye-opening exercise for his contemporary poets and
critics. However, it has to be admitted that his emphasis on the ‘rustic’,
‘real language of men’ has been severely questioned by his fellow poet
Coleridge. He himself did not practice what he preached in terms of the
language of poetry, as is evident from most of his famous poems. Thus,
serious questions can be raised on the authenticity and integrity of the
critic in Wordsworth.
Despite his limitations as a critic, his influence and contribution to
English literary criticism cannot be utterly negated. He is one of the
pioneers to attribute creative faculty to imagination, thereby debunking the
mere passivity attributed on it by the neo-classics. Apart from that, he
indulged in some of the more serious and age-old debates over the
function and object of poetry. In his “Preface”, Wordsworth opposed the
neo-classical practice of judging a work of art by the application of tests
based on ancient models. These tests are limited because they can, at
the most, judge the external qualities of the work – its structure, diction,
metre, and the like. A work might be flawless in all these and yet fail ‘to
please always and please all’. A critic interested in all these external
elements may easily be pleased with the perfection of these niceties.
However, such niceties cannot be enough to judge the merit of a poet or
a piece of poetry. Wordsworth concludes that the success or greatness
of poetry lay neither in a particular diction nor in a particular mode
expression. It lay rather in the healthy pleasure it afford to the reader. This
healthy pleasure may arise as much from the use of common language
as from the customary language of poetry, and as much from the writer’s
individual mode of writing as from that laid down by new-classicism. In
this connection, what Wordsworth says about the style of his Lyrical
Ballads can be applied equally to the general poetic practice: “I am well

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aware that others who pursue different track may interest him likewise;
I do not interfere with their claim, I only wish to prefer a difference claim
of my own.” This expression summarises actually all that he wanted to
express in the “Preface”: it is through the application of the common
principle of ‘live and let live’ in the sphere of letters that the individual
space for self-expression in Romanticism is defined and practiced.

9.7 LET US SUM UP

After going through this unit, you must have developed a fair idea
about the basic thematic concerns of the essay Preface to Lyrical
Ballads. In the Preface Wordsworth subverts certain conventional norms
of poetry established by his neo-classical predecessors. First,
Wordsworth finds in the life of the common people the most important
and meaningful objects of poetry. Secondly, in the treatment of such
‘common’, ‘rustic’ themes, he advocated for the employment of the
language ‘really used by man’. This selection of the most suitable
language for poetry goes directly against the poetic diction of the neo-
classicists. His choice of language is a revolt against ‘the gaudiness and
inane phraseology’ of the 18th century poets. Wordsworth further
observes that there can be no difference between the language of prose
and metrical composition. In Wordsworth’s theory, poetry is composed
from the powerful emotions stored in the mind, recollected later in the
state of tranquillity, and woven in the fabric of words. For Wordsworth,
poetry is the pursuit of truth; it is the pursuit of man’s knowledge of
himself and the world around him. “Poetry (therefore) is the breath and
finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in
the countenance of all science.” It is a force with intense affinity towards
what is good and superior.

9.8 FURTHER READING

Abrams, M. H. (1953). The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and
the Critical Tradition. London: OUP.
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Unit 9 William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Abrams, M. H. (ed). (1972). Wordsworth: A Collection of Critical Essays.

Cuddon, J. A. (1977). Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.
London: Penguin Books.
Gill, Simon. (ed). (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Wordsworth.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heffernan, James A. W. (1969). Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetry: The
Transforming Imagination. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Hill, John Spencer. (1977). The Romantic Imagination, A Selection of
Critical Essays. London: The Macmillan Press Limited.
Jones, Alun R., Tydeman, William. (eds). (1984). Wordsworth: Lyrical
Ballads, London: Macmillan Publication.
Moorman, Mary. (1965). William Wordsworth: A Biography. 2 vols.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Perkins, David. (1964). Wordsworth and the Poetry of Sincerity.
Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

9.9 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROG-

RESS (HINTS ONLY)

Ans to Q No 1: In 1795, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in

Somerset… …both friends together published Lyrical Ballads in
the autumn of 1798… …Wordsworth termed his poems published
in the volume as some ‘experimental’ works of poetry… …the
publication was a path-breaking moment in the history of English
literature… …this collection included lyrics like “I heard a thousand
blended notes”, “It is the first mild day of March”, “Expostulation and
Reply” and the most celebrated long poem called “Lines written a
few miles above Tintern Abbey.”
Ans to Q No 2: Attached to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, the
“Preface” considered a central work of Romantic literary theory…
…this “Preface” later came to be regarded as the ‘manifesto’ of
English Romantic criticism… …this “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”
offers a detailed discussion of what Wordsworth believes as the
elements of a new type of poetry, which would be based on the
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“real language of men,” and which would avoid the poetic diction of
much 18th century poetry.
Ans to Q No 3: The primary objective was to establish incidents and
situations drawn from common life as the subject matter of
poetry… … the other objective was to write poetry rejecting poetic
diction of the Neo-Classicists with the use the language ‘really used
by men’.
Ans to Q No 4: Wordsworth extends the scope of poetry, by
incorporating themes chosen from lives of the rustic, humble and
common people… …rustic people live close to nature far away
from artificiality and vanity… …their language becomes more
expressive of the vital truths of life… …the incidents and situations
from common life, expressed in the language really used by men,
can be the worthy subject matter of poetry.
Ans to Q No 5: The low and rustic life – that condition, free from all
outside influences, men speak from their own personal
experience – “convey their feelings and notions in simple and
unelaborated expressions.” – ‘simple language” is more
permanent – a far more philosophical language – expressive of
the basic truth of life.
Ans to Q No 6: His theory of poetic diction was to imitate, and as far as
possible to adopt” the very language of men” – to bring “language
near to the language of men”.
Ans to Q No 7: The language of poetry cannot differ materially from that
of prose – it is only the addition of metre that the pleasure is
superadded to a rational mind.
Ans to Q No 8: Good poetry is ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings’ – it takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility
– the emotion is contemplated, the tranquility gradually disappears
and an emotion kindred to that which was before the subject of
contemplation is gradually produced – In this mood begins the
actual successful composition.

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Unit 9 William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Ans to Q No 9: A colouring of imagination upon the common things of

life and nature make them appear to be uncommon… …to make
the natural appear like the supernatural… …the ordinary objects
are heightened and glorified by the poet’s imagination… …they
seem completely transmuted and transfigured… ...the whole of
Wordsworth’s poetry is an integrated vision of nature and man
revealed through his imagination.
Ans to Q No 10: The poet is a ‘man speaking to men’… …poetry should
give pleasure to the common men… …the moral consists partly in
the refinement of feelings which true poetry effects, partly is the
knowledge of “Man, Nature and Human life” and on things that
makes life fuller and richer… …poetry is “the breath and fines spirit
of all knowledge, it is the impassioned expression which is in the
countenance of all science.”

9.10 POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

Q 1: Discuss how William Wordsworth revolts against the neo-

classical theory of poetic diction.
Q 2: Write a note on Wordsworth’s contribution to the development of
the importance of imagination in Romantic literary Criticism.
Q 3: Write an essay on Wordsworth’s concept of poetic art.
Q 4: How, according to Wordsworth, are the subject matter and the
language of poetry interrelated? Discuss.
Q 5: Discuss, after Wordsworth, the functions of poetry in human
society.
Q 6: How does Wordsworth understand and define the qualifications of
a poet? Explain.
Q 7: Evaluate the critical value of Wordsworth’s “Preface” in the
context of English Romanticism.
Q 8: Do you consider Wordsworth as a good critic? Justify your
position with proper arguments.

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