The Lyrical Ballads

1. The Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads declares the dawn of English Romantic Movement. Wordsworth and Coleridge, with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, break away with the neo-classical tendencies in poetry Wordsworthhas revolted against the eighteenth century poetic theory and the poetic style, which was prevalent at that time. Besides this, his views on the nature of poetry, role of poet and the choice of subject matter have their own significance. He has tried to practice his views in his poetry and brought his poetry near to life. That is why he is called a literary revolutionary – his ‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ shows his revolutionary ideas in the literary field. The Preface embodies the poetic manifesto of Romanticism.

2. Wordsworth, in the beginning, states the necessity of bringing about a revolution in the realm of poetry as the Augustan poetry has become cliché. • Wordsworth thinks that the language of the Augustan poetry is highly artificial and sophisticated. That is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry. These attempt chiefly deals with Wordsworth’s views of poetry.

3. Wordsworth thinks that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. To him, the intensity of feelings is more important than the form. • Wordsworth does not rule out contemplation or meditation. According to Wordsworth, our feelings are modified and directed by our thoughts which are indeed the representatives of our past feelings. • The poet is a man of great sensibility whose mentality has been already shaped.

4. He says that the process of writing poems has four stages: • recollection, • contemplation, • recrudescence (renewal) • composition his emphasis on emotion is a reaction to the eighteenth century poetry, which was intellectual, devoid of any feelings and it had its appeal to the head.

5. Language • To make poetry life like, he wants to use the language of common people ,however, in its purified form • (T. S. Eliot, in his The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, objects to Wordsworth’s view. Eliot tells that a poet should not imitate the language of a particular class because he ought to have a language of his own. Eliot’s view gains ground as Wordsworth in his later poems, fails to use his prescribed language. His diction is, in fact peculiar to him.)

6. he has chosen the incidents and situations from humble and rustic life • Such language is permanent and philosophic • He goes on to say that “there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.” The language of a large portion of every good poem differs from good prose except with reference to metre.

7. However, Coleridge maintains that there are certain modes of expression, a construction, and an order of sentences which are in their fit and natural place in a serious prose composition but would be inappropriate to metrical poetry. He goes on to say that in the language of a serious poem, these may be an arrangement of words and sentences; and the use of figure of speech would be inappropriate. He says that when a poet writes in metre, he means to differ from prose. Poetry implies passion.

8. Wordsworthmaintains that poetry is more philosophical than any other branch of knowledge. He likes the poet to a prophet who is endowed with a greater knowledge of life and nature. • Wordsworth believes that only “the manifestations of general truth” can please all people.(The neo-classical poets consider the province of poetry to be the world of fictions. But for Wordsworth the province of poetry is the world of truth, not a world of make-believe. That is why he rejects the hackneyed(stale,stereotyped) poetic style of the Augustan period.)

9. Wordsworth differs with the neo-classical writers in his belief about the process of poetry. The neo-classical writers think that the poet’s mind is a sensitive but passive recorder of a natural phenomenon. • But Wordsworth thinks that the mind of the poet is never a passive recorder. In his view, the poet’s mind half creates the external world which he perceives. • Wordsworth seems to establish the fact that the poet’s mind and the external nature are both interlinked and interdependent.

10. Wordsworth points out the common characteristics of both poetry and science. But he places poetry over science for the fact that the large part of poetry is based on imagination. • science only appealsto intellect while poetry appeals to heart. • the pleasures of science are shared by few while the pleasures of poetry are open to all. • the truth of science is subject to change while poetry does not suffer from such threat • Wordsworth insists that the immediate object of the poet is to give pleasure. The poet’s mind is in a state of enjoyment and the poet’s description of passions ensures an over-balance of pleasure in the mind of the reader.

11. Wordsworth breaks with the classical theory of poetry when he advocates for the intensity of emotion. To him, reason is not at all important. (This is a subjective view.) • The "end of poetry" is to produce excitement in co existence with an overbalance of pleasure. • Wordsworth isnot absolutely right in his theory of poetry. But his views are innovative and creative.

12. His rejection of classical doctrines leads to the creation of a new type of poetry which prefers him emotions to reason. As a result a group of talented poet’s has emerged in the province of English poetry. • At the same time, he has contributed to the field of literary criticism. • If Blake is considered to be the precursor of romantic poetry, Wordsworth and Coleridge are the two early exponents of romantic poetry.