WORDSWOTH AS A ROMANTIC CRITIC
• Wordsworth was the first to give a new turn to
discussion as the nature of poetry by
connecting it with feeling and making it
dependent upon imagination.
• His views on language and poetic diction are
even more strikingly original.They were so
original,indeed that they provoked much
criticism when they were first produced.


• Wordsworth tries to bridge the gulf between prose
and verse.
• Later Wordsworth pleads that prose and metrical
compositions make use of the same material,namely
words and phrases and speak to a same sense.
• Meter adds no novel distinction to the language such
a distinction emanates only from passionate use of
language and is thus generic not specific.
• Words of prose and poetry are not clearly
demarcated so the words which can be used in prose
can find place in poetry and vice versa.


• Wordsworth makes it clear that the use
of meter in poetry is different from the
use of poetic diction.
• Meter obeys certain rules where as
poetic diction is arbitrary and
capricious.
• In the preface,Wordsworth has

defended meter on the grounds.


• (i)It adds charm and pleasure to
the language.


• (ii)Poems written upon humble
subjects and in a more naked and
simple language than the poets
own compositions have continued
to give pleasure from generation to
generation.


• (iii) The end of poetry is to produce
excitement.In the statement of
excitement ideas and feelings do
not follow each other in the
accustomed order.Meter retrains
and tempers the eciteest.


• (iv)Pathetic and painful situation can b
rendered more effectively in rhyme than
in prose.
• (v)It imparts a dream like quality to the
poem because of which the pain seems
remote and more endurable.



• (vi)It imparts passion to the words and
makes the reader experience
appropriate feelings of pleasure.
• (vii) We derive pleasure from perception
of similarity in dissimilarity.The use of
meter provides the element of contrast.


PREFACE TO THE LYRICAL
BALLADE


• Wordsworth wrote the preface with a view to
provide a kind of introduction to his poems
which was considered by him to be new both
in theme and style.
• He didn’t want to present his poems to the
public without telling them as to why he didn’t
follow the conventional style and theme of
neo-classical poetry.


• The preface explains the way in which
his poems differ from the popular
tradition of the age”Every new and
original poet has to create the taste by
which he is read and enjoyed and the
creation of such a taste was
Wordworth’s basic objective in writing

the preface”.


• In his preface he demolishes the neoclassical poetry,and present his own theory of
poetry that his poems are read and
appreciated.In the preface,Wordsworth
discusses the nature and function of poetry
and poetic process the qualification of a poet
and the poetic truth.
• He regards poetry superior to philosophical
history and science.In a way the preface is a
landmark in the history of literary criticism.


• The preface to the Lyrical Ballad was perhaps
more remarkable than the poems themselves
for in the preface the theory of new poetry of
the romantic age was laid down with great
deal leaving no scope for ambiguity and
doubt.
• It was in the preface that Wordsworth made
bold and categorical statements regarding the
nature of poetry and function of criticism and
the ole of the poet as a creative artist.


• This preface is one of the master pieces of English
criticism it is intelligent subtle yet extremely clear and
provocative.
• The preface makes us understand the subject matter

of poetry is whatever interest.The human mind(that is
if a thing is interesting,it doesn’t mean at all to say
that this undignified or unpoetic.
• The Lyrical Ballad were written as experiments to try
out the use of language.
• Conversation of real people is poetry.
• They are new and unusual and will not suit the taste
of most readers,Nevertheless,the reader is asked to
try them with an open mind and not to be putt off at
first sight without giving them a fair trial.


• In the preface to the lyrical ballade
Wordsworth says that he has used language
and situations from “low and rustic” life
because in low and rustic life man is more
simple ,more direct and nearer to his
elemental passions and less affected and
artificial in the way he expresses his
passions.
• The language of poetry he says should not be
different from the language of prose in the
same way poetry doesn't require specifically
poetic subjects,it doesn't deal with grand or
the dignified or the sensational but with the
permanent interest of human heart.


• Wordsworth says that “poetry is the breath
and finer spirit of all knowledge”and that

“poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings”taking its origin from
emotions collected in tranquility”
• The qualification of the poets are laid down in
conformity with the dignity of his art.
• To Wordsworth a poet is who”possessed of
more than usual organic sensibility”and one
who has also “thought long and deeply”


• The first preface to Lyrical Ballad was published in
1800.It was revised and enlarged for the 1802 edition
of the lyrical Ballade.In the preface of 1802 edition
Wordsworth added a long account of the nature and
function of poet.He answered this question in his own
characteristic manner as to what is a poet?
• He declared poet superior to the man of science and
analyzed the nature of poetic pleasure.To this edition
Wordsworth also added an appendix on Poetic
diction.
• Wordsworth continued revising and perfecting the
preface in each subsequent edition.
• In the edition of 1815 this preface appeared as
Appendix and the volume was provided with an
entirely new preface.to this volume Wordsworth also
added an essay supplementary to the preface.
• The preface that we study today is that of 1802.


• Wordsworth says in the preface that although

the poet feels for the man and about man and
he should write in a way that is understood by
men.
• The poet also possesses powers of
communication,memory and passion.
• In the preface he makes an attempt to define
what makes a poet write poetry .
• Some of his remarks such as “emotions
recollected in tranquility” and “spontaneous
overflow of emotions” are deservedly famous.


• He is one of the first writers who alter to
describe the inner creative process.Perhaps
his best and clearest definition of a poet is of
the man “who being possessed by more
than usual organic sensibility has also
thought long and deeply”
• A good poet is not first of all a thinker and a
philosopher not is first of all a sensitive soul
putting forth his own passions.He must write
the two qualities of thought and feelings.He is
different from the other men not in kid but in
degree of his qualities,which make him write
that which others feel but cannot express.


• In the preface Wordsworth covers an
enormous stretch of ground,throwing
out quite effortlessly the most acute

observations on the relationship of
poetry and science on the use of
metre ,at the place of pleasure in art
and as the history of poetry.
• It raises almost every knotty aesthetic
problem one can think of and deals with
them with an amazing confidence and
energy after reading it.


• Wordsworth at least had thought long and
deep and “indolence” is the least thing he
could be accused of.
• It is a pleasure to read someone who is sure
of his own mind and at the same time has
nothing dry and opined about him.
• This preface leaves a final impression of a
quite extraordinary combination of creative
and critical power of passion and thought.
• It marks the beginning of a new age.


• Wordsworth sought to bring about a distinct
change from the practice of the preceding
generations.
• He doesn’t recognize any unbridgeable gulf
between science and poetry.He disproves the
idea that with the advancement of science
poetry declines.
• On the other hand he is of the view that with

the advancement of science poetry becomes
familiar with the scientific principles and
scientific phraseology and adjusts itself to the
new idioms for expressing new thoughts.He
has a liberal attitude towards science and that
is appreciable.


• Wordsworth has mentioned the idea of
imitation in the preface(1800) and it is
appropriately indicated how poetry is
distinguished from history deals in
generations,
• Wordsworth subscribes to the view that to the
poet the particular is nothing and universal is
everything.
• As regards the end of poetry,Wordsworth
make a departure from Aristotle.For Aristotle
plot is the primary thing.The idea of delight as
the end of poetry is neither explicitly nor
elaborately mentioned.On the other hand
Wordsworth emphasizes pleasure to be the
end of poetry.


WORDSWORTH’S THEORY OF POETRY

• Wordsworth has described the theory of
poetry and his conception of the
function of a poet.In his theory of poetry

he set down the origin,nature and
purpose of poetry and the function of
the poet in a civil society.


• Wordsworth defines poetry as the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,it
takes its origin from emotions recollected in
tranquility,the emotion is contemplated till the
tranquility disappears and an emotion
kindered to that which was before the subject
of contemplation is gradually produced and
does itself actually exist in mind.