William Wordsworth’s Preface to the “Lyrical Ballads”

Overview
Author
William Wordsworth
Year Published
1850
Type
Essay
Genre
Argument, Nonfiction, Philosophy
At a Glance
The Preface is considered a revolutionary step forward in introducing Romantic poetry to world
literature. Wordsworth and his close friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) collaborated
in explaining their new ideas of poetry and the poet's task. These views on poetry are based on
a love of nature and on the use of common feelings and language, away from what
Wordsworth and Coleridge saw as the falseness and needless complexities of the past.
Wordsworth believed poetry should reflect everyday language rather than fit itself to
established formulas, such as form, meter, and poetic diction, as it had in the past. The Preface
has been called "Wordsworth's best-known critical work, and his most original essay in
aesthetics." It continues to be read and discussed in the study of Romantic literature, as well as
of succeeding centuries of realism and modernism in poetry and prose.
About the Title
After first publishing his Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth felt the need to explain and defend his
new techniques in poetry, in the hope of attracting an audience who would continue to
understand and appreciate his work. He wrote a Preface for the first edition in 1800 and made
revisions throughout his life. The 1802 version formed the basis for the final edition of 1850.
The title, "Preface," was never changed, giving it a sense of ongoing novelty.

Introduction
Much before William Wordsworth started writing ,the early Romantic poets like James
Thomson (1700-48),Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74),Thomas Chatterton (1752-70),Thomas Gray
(1716-71),William Collins-59),William Cowper (1731-1800),George Crabbe (1754-1832),Robert
Burns (1759-95), and William Blake (1757-1827) deviated from the neo-classic insistence on
rules. However, Wordsworth is perhaps the only romantic poet who made his poetic
experiences the locus of his critical discourse. Unlike Coleridge, he was not a theorist. Instead
he unraveled before us the workings of the mind of the poet, and therefore, Wordsworth’s
literary criticism ceases to be criticism in its most literal sense. It comes out as the matrix where
the poet’s mind generates emotions and feelings with that much of intensity and passion
required for transmitting them into poetic experience which forms the basis of poetic
composition. From this perspective, Wordsworth’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical
Ballads in 1800 can be seen as a poetic "manifesto," or “statement of revolutionary aims
 • The Romantic Revival
It is a fact that the French Revolution, the Napoleonic words and other social and political
events did not initiate the Romantic Movement but enriched its content. The term romantic,
however, first appeared in the mid seventeenth century English to describe what Chew and
Altick called “the fabulous, the extravagant, the factious, and the unreal.” However, by the
mid eighteenth century the term came to describe “pleasing” scenes and situation. What
followed next was a prevalence of instincts and emotions over rationalism and common sense.
It seems that the term romantic as a literary phenomenon was not perceived in the same vain
and with the same degree of intensity in different contexts. This resulted in the use of the term
to describe different tendencies at different times in different contexts. The same can be said of
the term ‘romanticism’. It refers to a theory, a school of thought, and a matter of technique and
so on. The poets and the writers not only sought to emancipate themselves from the fetters of
neo-classical rules but also experimented with the old forms, revived some of them which went
into the oblivion because the neo-classical writers considered them to be vulgar and
undignified. In course of such experimentation with forms, revival of form or creations of new
forms, following tendencies were noticed:
• The poet put more emphasis on imagination rather than intellect. They allowed free
play of imagination in their poetry. Their free flights of fancy often led them to the
strange, unfamiliar and the distant.
• The infatuation for the remote, the exotic and the mysterious enkindled in the romantic
poets a love for the medieval. Just as the writers of the eighteenth century turned to
classical writers for inspiration, the poets of the romantic revival turned to medieval age
for inspiration.
“The essential elements of the romantic spirit are curiosity and the love of beauty,
and it is as the accidental effect of these qualities only, that it seeks the Middle Ages,
because in the overcharged atmosphere of the Middle Ages there are unworked
sources of romantic effect, of a strange beauty to be won by strong imagination out of
things unlikely or remote.” (Pater, W…..)

• They gave free reign to their emotion and passion. They abhorred classical restraint and
obsession with reason.
• Their preoccupation with imagination and emotions made their poetry primarily
subjective. This was in contrast with the classical preference for objectivity in poetry.
For them poetry was not genuine if it was not personal.
• Poetry became closer to everyday life of common man. The ‘poetic diction’ of the
eighteenth century was rejected as artificial and unnatural.
• ”Return to nature” was their motto. They turned away from the artificial urban life and
found refuge in the country life and nature. They worshipped nature. Love of nature for
them meant love of mankind, humanism and a more world view that encompassed the
idea of freedom and equality.

• Impact of French Revolution

The Romantic Revival is the result of many forces. One of the significant forces that shaped
Romantic Revival is the French Revolution (1789–1799). The French Revolution in its bottom
line brought a violent end to feudal powers and monarchy and asserted the right and
supremacy of the individual free will. The new philosophy of the rights of all men was expressed
both in politics and literature. This led to the “Liberalism in Literature.” The political liberalism
of French Revolution inspired the liberation, individuality and rejection of prescribed rules in
the Romantic Literature. The Romantic poets were inspired by the ideals of equality, fraternity
and liberty. They revolted against the tyranny of set formulas, rules and conventions. They
asserted the dignity of individual spirit. This new form of philosophy became one of the main
guidelines of a new school of Romantic poets, writers and philosophers. Romantic’s search for
fresh subject, their belief in nature, their emphasis upon spontaneity and their belief that
everyone has a right to express his own idea are the features of individualism which was the
prime demand of French Revolution.

Preface to the Lyrical Ballad

The Genesis of the Lyrical Ballad
Wordsworth’s ‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ underwent a number of revisions till it had its
present form. The Lyrical Ballads was first published in 1798. Wordsworth came to add a short
Advertisement to it. He added a more detailed ‘Preface’ to the second edition of the Lyrical
Ballads in 1800. It was extended and modified in 1802 edition of the Lyrical Ballads.
Wordsworth aim in writing the ‘Preface’ was not to give an elaborate account of his theory of
poetry or to make a systematic defense of his point-of-view. He wanted to introduce his poems
with a prefatorily argument He added the ‘Preface’ because he felt that his poems were
different in theme and style, and therefore, he should not present them without an
introduction. It is a well observed phenomenon that every new poet struggles to carve a niche.
That is what Wordsworth tried to do with the help of the ‘Preface’.
Aims of the Preface
Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads helps to articulate and identify what Romanticism, as a
movement, is. It is a declaration of sorts of what Wordsworth and Coleridge believe to be the
defining elements of Romanticism. The movement is articulated in the writing so that there is a
clear understanding of how one can both write in the Romantic style and recognize it in other
writing. For example, when Wordsworth and Coleridge write that the subject or nature of
poetry is driven by "incidents and situations from common life," it helps to bring out the idea
that Romanticism is about the world around the individual. Anything can have poetic value and
it is upon the shoulders of the poet to make the smallest and most insignificant item possess
poetic importance. The Preface talks about elements such as this in terms of outlining the
parameters of Romanticism according to Wordsworth and Coleridge. It is important to note
that much of what was featured in the Preface flew in the face of traditional conventions, and
was especially challenged by those who followed the Neoclassical school of thought. It was
essential that the new movement of Romanticism be defined in as clear and direct of a manner
as possible and the Preface was an attempt to do just that.
• The primary object which Wordsworth proposed to propagate through the poems was
to select incidents and situations from common life.

• The great innovation was to be in the language. The poetic diction of the eighteenth
century, sought to substitute the selection of the language really used by men. The
“Advertisement” included in the 1798 edition shows Wordsworth’s concern about the
language of poetry. Wordsworth says that the poems in the volume are “experiments”
 since his chief aim is to see if the conversational language in use among the middle and
lower classes of society can be employed expediently and fruitfully to write poems.

Main Ideas of preface

• Poetry as the Language of Common People

The Preface to Lyrical Ballads presents Wordsworth's explanation for the new type of poetry he
published in 1798. He continued to revise the Preface in the hope of gaining a larger reading
audience and further recognition by other writers. He rejects previous conventional approaches
to literature as emotionally barren, overlooking the connection he values between the thoughts
and language of common people and the poet's ability to transmit the experience at the same
accessible level. He speaks of poetry as existing from the poet as one person to other persons,
with minimal or no intermediary needed. He recognizes some refinement of anything
considered vulgar or offensive would need revising, but otherwise no real barriers need exist.
As a Romantic, Wordsworth values the humble, rustic ways of countryfolk, people who he
believes have directly experienced the truths of nature. Their experiences can be transmitted in
poetry that includes the same honesty and directness that he finds in homogenous rural
settings. Poems he creates spring from the overflow of genuine feelings. These lead to
reflection and simple wisdom and then are restated in ordinary language to recreate the
original emotion.
The Preface rejects reliance on standards from the Classical or Enlightenment eras—Pope and
Johnson among the British poets he names—because they overlook the lives of common
people who speak humble and unadorned language.

• Prose and Poetry

Devoting much attention to emphasizing the close connection of poetry with prose,
Wordsworth shows little patience for efforts in past eras to perfect standards for either poetry
or prose at the expense of the other. For him, both share the same purpose: to speak plainly
and honestly in language reflecting the lives of living people and not close themselves off to the
other form. He does not believe in a separation of poetry and prose as two opposed
approaches but instead states repeatedly they come from the same origins and spirit and
should be accessible at equal levels.

Wordsworth places little value on the factual or scientific in literature. He is far more interested
in the emotions arising from an immediate experience that is later reflected upon, assimilated,
and understood. He can see the significance of scientific inquiry and knowledge, but for
speaking the truths of the lives of his contemporaries, he keeps a distance between instinctive
literature and applied scientific literature. For Wordsworth, this type of literature does not
unite the scientist with ordinary people on a daily basis, but instead keeps him isolated in a
world of facts. Writing as he was in the first years of the 1800s, he could not anticipate the
enormous role scientific research and experimentation has assumed since then. The Preface
ushers in a new world of literary sensibility, and is focused ahead of that changing world.
However, scientifically, it seems naïve.
 • Role of the Poet
At the heart of the Preface, Wordsworth gives extended treatment to the role of a poet,
according to the views he has expressed on language and content. The poet is a person of the
common people, attuned to them and sensitive to their experiences, and at the same time the
poet is someone in a special position. Wordsworth explains, "The poet, singing a song in which
all human beings join with him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and hourly
companion." The poet is the "rock of defense for human nature; an upholder and a preserver,
carrying everywhere with him relations and love." Wordsworth adds, "The poet binds together
by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society ... and over all time."

As the new scientists of Wordsworth's time forged ahead in chemistry and botany, so the poet
represents "the first and last of all knowledge ... as immortal as the heart of man ... The poet
will lend his divine spirit to aid the transfiguration" into knowledge. But for Wordsworth and
others he hoped to inspire, the role of art stands far apart from applied science of any kind. The
poet remains a special person, an individual who can take the ordinary experiences of common
people and articulate those experiences coherently into felt passions and controlled emotions
that touch on moral truth and rightness.

Wordsworth’s Definition of Poetry

William Wordsworth says that he has selected incidents and situations of common life. He
describes them by selection of incidents and situations of common life. He describes them by
selection of language really used by men. In the past this ordinary life of the ordinary people
has never been a subject of poetry. For the first time he democratizes poetry and gives a
universal appeal to it. People living in the modern cities are very much artificial and far away
from the simplicity of nature. Therefore, they don’t express the reality of human life. They
suffer from social vanity. Artificiality predominates in them. But the villagers are very simple
and free from social vanity. Wordsworth says that in Lyrical Ballads, humble and rustic life has
been chosen as the theme of poetry because the essential passions of the heart find a better
soul in which they can attain their maturity in the humble state of life. Wordsworth comments
that humble and rustic life holds simplicity, serenity and tranquility. The rustic people express
their feelings and emotion through simple, unelaborated and unsophisticated way. Their
language is more passionate, more vivid and more emphatic. The language of the rustics,
according to William Wordsworth is more philosophical and permanent than the language used
by the city dwellers and the earlier poets.

Poetry should express common human feelings and there should be no restriction in the
expression of the experiences of the senses and sensibilities. Wordsworth defines poetry as the
spontaneous overflow of the powerful feelings. It is the poet’s business to embody in their
poetry the general passions of men. Wordsworth avoids the use of personifications of abstract
ideas and serious diction in his poems so far as possible for making poetry intelligible to all
types of readers. The language of his poetry is near to that of prose. The incidents of life, the
natural objects around us and the common feelings of men as well as our sorrows and
happiness, failure and success should get a ready appeal in poetry without false description.
Wordsworth says,
“Poetry sheds no tears, such as angels weep, but natural and human tears.”
Another important idea of Wordsworth about poetry is that the function of poetry is to give
pleasure to readers by presenting the incidents and situations of their lives in a fascinating and
unusual way with a color of imagination. Therefore Wordsworth agrees with Aristotle,

“Poetry is the most philosophical of all writings. The subject of poetry is general and
operative truth which is its own testimony.”
According to J. C. Smith, an eminent critic,
“The nature of poetry will appear more clearly when we have considered its end or purpose,
or the function of the poet in a civil society.”

Wordsworth establishes a relation between man and nature in his poetry. Therefore he opines
that poetry is the image of man and nature. It is an acknowledgement of the beauty of the
universe. Poetry, to Wordsworth, is a powerful media of supplying knowledge and pleasure to
mankind. He considers that man and nature are essentially adapted to each other. Therefore,
man has emotional, philosophical, moral and spiritual connection to nature. The poet’s
business is to describe human life in its very form and to establish a relationship between man
and universe. So, Wordsworth says that poetry is the first and last of all knowledge- it is as
immortal as the heart of ma.
Wordsworth’s Conception of Poetry
Passion and Reflection Wordsworth propounded his views on poetry, its nature and functions
and the qualification of a true poet in his Preface. So far as the nature of poetry is concerned,
Wordsworth is of the opinion that
“poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”
Poetry has its origin in the internal feelings of the poet. It is a matter of passion, mood and
temperament. Poetry cannot be produced by strictly adhering to the rules laid down by the
Classicists. It must flow out naturally and smoothly from the soul of the poet. But it must be
noted that good poetry, according to Wordsworth, is never an immediate expression of such
powerful emotions. A good poet must ponder over them long and deeply. In the words of
Wordsworth,
“poetry has its origin in emotions recollected in tranquility.”
There are four stages which play a very crucial role in converting an experience into a pleasing
composition.

• Stage One: Observation

First comes observation or perception of some object, character or incident which sets
up powerful emotions in the mind of the poet.
• Stage Two: Recollection
Next comes the contemplation or recollection of that emotion in tranquility. It must be
noted that at this stage memory comes into play and brings out what had been lying in
the unconscious for days, months or years. A similar kind of incident triggers the poet to
visit the past experiences stored in the unexplored regions of his mind.
• Stage Three: Filtering
The third stage is that of filtering wherein the poet is purged of non-essential elements
and thus makes his experience communicable to all men.
 • Stage Four: Composition
The fourth stage is when the actual composition begins. The poet seeks to convey his
emotions through print and turns into a communicator. In the words of Wordsworth he
becomes a man speaking to men. What is important to him is not just expressing his joy
but sharing it with his readers. The Solitary Reaper by Wordsworth demonstrates this
poetic process.

Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;--
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

The Solitary Reaper, William Wordsworth

Feelings started overflowing spontaneously as the poet listened to the song of the Highland girl:
“the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.”
Removed from the scene he started recollecting his experiences in tranquility and exhuming
theme of the song and causes its joyousness. Slowly but gradually this state of mind disappears,
and an emotion which is quite similar to the original is generated. It soon turns into feeling and
starts resonating and he begins composing his poem with “the music” he feels in his heart
“Long after it was heard no more” causes its joyousness.

Concept of Imagination
In the neo-classical literary theory the human mind is regarded as the passive recorder of sense
impressions. Imagination is thought to be a mode of memory which brings images from the
memory and so represents sense objects not actually present. Secondly, the imagination is
thought to be the power which originally links together different impressions to form images of
things that do not exist in the sense. For example, the mythological characters are the products
of imagination. Hence, the neo-classicists believe that Imagination is a combining power, not a
creative one. On the other hand, the Romantics place Imagination to a higher position. For
them it is a highly creative faculty. It just rearranges materials but also shapes, orders, modify
and colors sense objects with the minds own light. Imagination integrates different elements to
generate a new reality. It’s a faculty that allows the mind to see beyond the material world.
Themes and Subject Matter of poetry
Any subject between heaven and earth can be treated poetically and the similar idea is noted
by Wordsworth in 1798,
“It is the honorable characteristic of poetry that its materials are to be found in every subject
which can interest the human mind.”
Wordsworth states that subjects are poetic and unpoetic in themselves. A slight incident of
village life may be material for poetry, if the poet can make it meaningful. Thus Wordsworth
extends the scope of poetry, by bringing within its folds themes chosen from humble and
common life. Wordsworth’s aim was to choose incidents and situations from common life, to
relate them in a selection of language really used by men. The reason that he gave was that the
rustic people were close to nature and hence free from artificiality and vanity. Let us short
review Wordsworth views on the theme and subject matter of poetry.

• Object
The principle object then proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from
common life, and to relate and describe them throughout, as far as possible in a selection of
language really used by men, and at the same time ,to throw over them a certain coloring of
imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect;
and further and above all, to make these situations and incidents interesting by tracing in
them, truly thought not ostentatiously the primary laws of our nature: chiefly as regards the
manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.

• Humble and rustic life

Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition the essential passions of
the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint.
Speak a plainer and more emphatic language, because in that condition of life our elementary
feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity and consequently may be more accurately
contemplated and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate
from these elementary feelings and from the necessary character of rural occupations are
more easily comprehended and more durable and lastly, because in that condition the passions
of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanents forms of nature.

• Language (style of poetry)

The language, too of these men has been adopted purified indeed from what appear to be its
real defects ,from all lasting and rational causes of dislike and disgust because such men
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 variety, they convey their feelings and notions in simple
and elaborated expressions.
Function of Poetry
Thus Wordsworth‘s view on poetical style are the most revolutionary of all idea in his Preface.
He discarded the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers. He insists that his
poems are written in ‘selection of language of men in a state of vivid sensation’. His views of
poetic diction can be summed up as ‘there neither is nor can be any essential difference
between the language of prose and metrical composition.’
There are two schools of thought holding opposite views with regard to the function of
Literature or Art in general. The view of the moralists is that the writer can and does influence
the lives and characters of his readers; and therefore it should try to be a good influence. For
them art is food or poison. This view is called ‘art for Life’s sake’. The view of the aesthetes is
that the function of poetry is to give pleasure to its reader irrespective of the moral ideas. For
them art is wine. Only its pleasure-value matters. Among the classicists, Plato hardly falls under
the category of ‘Art for Art’ssake’ and believed that the art should be bound to the moral
values. Dryden believes,
“Delight is the chief, if not the only end of poesy”.
Dr. Johnson remarks, “The end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or to
endure it”. For most of the Romantics, life was sacred and valued it. For instance Shelly
remarked:
“Shakespeare, Dante and Milton are philosophers of the very loftiest power”.
Keats, the worshipper of beauty, believes that the function of poetry is
“that it should be a friend to soothe the cares, and lift the thoughts of men”.
Wordsworth too favors the view of Arts for Life’s sake. He emphasized the didactic view of
literature when he said, “I am nothing if not a teacher”. Poetry, in the words of Wordsworth,
“is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the
countenance of all science”.
The analysis of this definition gives us the sense that the function of poetry is to ennoble the
reader. It is like the torch that leads its readers on the dark path. Poetry is the moral guide that
imparts moral lessons but in sugar-coated form so that the learning becomes implied and
plausible. Wordsworth’s poems confirm here his own concept of the function of poetry. His
poems are full of moral lessons, philosophical truths about life and religion packaged with
delight. In Wordsworth’s own words:
 “… a poetry of revolt against the moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; A poetry of
indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life”.

Diction of Poetry
The term diction refers to the kinds of words, phrases and sentence structures, and sometimes
figurative language that constitute any work of literature. In the theory of poetry, the issue of
diction tends to become primary because the feelings of the poet are most readily conceived to
overflow into words, unlike into plot or characters. The poets in all ages have used a distinctive
language, a “poetic diction” which is not correct in ordinary discourse. The neo-classical poetic
diction was mainly derived from the classical poets such as Virgil, Spenser, and Milton and was
based on the principal of decorum. Moreover, prominent features of the eighteenth century
poetic diction where archaism, preference for resounding words derived from Latin, a
personification of inanimate objects and to avoid what were regarded as low, technical or
common place terms by means of substitute phrase that was dignity and decorum. In William
Wordsworth’s famed attack on the neo-classical doctrine of a special language for poetry, in his
preface to 1800 Lyrical Ballads, he claimed:
“There is no difference between language of poetry and language of prose.”
He states that the poetic diction of eighteenth century writers as artificial and unnatural.
Wordsworth’s prime concern is not only with the single word or the grammatical order of
discourse, but with figurative departures from literary discourse. Wordsworth’s chief aim is to
show that such deviations are reasonable in poetry only when they match with the imagery and
idea which the poet wishes to universalize and that they have in the speech of everyday life. It
is obvious that Wordsworth is contradicting Pope’s theory, who claims,
“True wit is nature to advantage dressed and true expression consists in giving thoughts their
just and appropriate ‘dresses and ornament. To Wordsworth all such wit is fake, forced
adjustment of words and phrase and rhetorical ornament to them stop ‘genuine’ poetry.
Wordsworth rejects the idea of language as artificial and meters and figures of speech as
embellishments of the language. He justifies its use only when they are naturally suggested
by passion unlike ‘supposed ornaments. ‘In a nutshell, so the natural expression of feeling
cannot be communicated with the help of a version of the upper class speech, but with the
actual speech of “humble and rustic life.”

Conclusion
M.H.Abrams once said,
“The first critic of Wordsworth’s poetry is Wordsworth himself.”
Wordsworth’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, which expresses the spirit of
Romanticism in his words, is a critical document that puts stress on the relationship between
poet and poetry rather than on the relationship between poetry and reader. He defines poetry
in terms of the author’s creative activity. So, he discusses the idea of poetry after discussing the
idea of poet. For him, a poet is affected more than others by imagining things not immediately
present to his perceptions. The definition given by Wordsworth refers to this process of poetic
composition emphasizing the roles played by memory and contemplation. Wordsworth, while
defining poetry, goes beyond the Aristotelian concept of poetry as an imitation of an action.
The Preface also contains his views on poetic diction. He attacks the hackneyed verbal
conventions of eighteenth century poetry and opines that the conversational language should
be used to compose poems. It would not be wrong to say that Wordsworth contradicts himself
because at the stage of contemplation a poet chooses words very carefully, therefore it is not
possible to use the language “really used by men.” In spite of such criticism, the ‘Preface’
remains one of the most significant critical documents in the history of English Criticism. It has
been a source from which the next generation critics have derived ideas and exploited them to
the fullest.

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads | Summary

The Preface to Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge appeared after the first publication
of the poems and then in numerous revised forms until the end of Wordsworth's career. It
remains the clearest statement of Romantic principles as it lays out the purpose and practice of
writing poetry and its close relation to prose. It also explains the profession, or craft, of the
"poet" and the role of poetry in giving a voice to contemporary and simplified ways of living
that stay close to the truths of nature. For Wordsworth, as for all the Romantic writers, one
discovered these primary laws of nature through experiences in the natural world—experiences
that, when combined with emotion, produced poetry.

• Importance of Subject Matter

Wordsworth emphasizes why and how he chooses the subjects for his poems. He separates his
work from that of past ages and literary figures, showing they have been too "literary" by
emphasizing formal or classical models of artificial conventions. Rather than the recording of
actual observations or events, Wordsworth believes emotional truths and fidelity to nature are
the keys to providing ordinary readers with insights into their own conditions of life. He favors a
"humble and rustic" rural existence (yet without narrating anything unsettling or violent) to
urban life because it seems simpler and more natural. Wordsworth also favors a more unified,
common population that shares similar experiences. In cities like rapidly expanding London, the
permanence of natural truths seems absent. The short-lived values of shifting populations give
no connection to the past or the promise of future tranquility for the common people, whose
experiences can form the basis for poetry as well as prose. Wordsworth sought to make
ordinary experiences seem more extraordinary and enduring. As nature reveals permanence
and unchanging truths, the new literature Wordsworth proposes would share the simplicity,
and depth, of people's lives.

• Characteristics of Poetry
Wordsworth says poetry must arise from the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it
takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." Although a poet should make a poem
seem spontaneous, the creation of it is not. Poetry must reflect emotion, or passion—not
simply record observations. The poet must draw from real-life experiences and describe them
in ordinary language, and the poet must "throw over them a certain coloring of the
imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect." It
is the imagination that permits the poet to touch on the eternal, making the surrounding world
new and connecting the people with that world.

Wordsworth analyzes what he sees as four parts of the poet's creative process. The poet first
observes something that creates a powerful emotion. Then he tranquilly contemplates and
reflects on the emotion. During this period the poet may recall other things that relate to the
observation itself or to the past in some way. Such contemplation is personal, intended only for
the poet. The tranquility of contemplation disappears after a time, and then the poet distills all
these thoughts, eliminating some and keeping others so that the original emotion is recreated
in a way that is more universal. Finally the poet is ready to write, with the aim of sharing the
emotion with an audience.

Poetry, therefore, doesn't arise from classical models or through an immediate inspiration on
any supernatural level. It arises through experience on an ordinary level—understood and
reflected upon. Wordsworth rejects elaboration or literary devices as artificial and uses
numerous examples of earlier poets' work in his discussion. He hopes to lead readers to
meditate on their own emotions and arrive eventually at a more moral and true conception of
themselves and of life. Poetry can achieve the finest level of art by being simple and
straightforward.

• Poetry and Prose

Wordsworth devotes much of the Preface to examining his views on poetry and prose. He
rejects past distinctions of one being more heroic or a higher art than the other. His aim is to
reveal both as sharing the most important characteristics of "the language of men." As he
simplifies the art of being a poet into being "a man speaking to men," he essentially erases the
lines separating prose from poetry. He sees the distinction of both as opposed to science, as he
understands it, because the relatively new field of science focuses on the factual. Moreover, he
sees the scientist as making discoveries on their own, away from others, and not influencing the
common condition, which for Wordsworth is the essence of poetry. For Wordsworth, who
favors free, straightforwardly rhymed lines over traditional rhyme and meter in poetry, the use
of most meter produces a forced type of "verse" rather than the "naked," simpler poetry that
shares truths with prose.

He explains that he chooses to write poetry—with a proper and natural "Poetic Diction"—
rather than prose because it offers more possibilities for his imagination to explore the natural
passions of men and give them form. However, he refuses to acknowledge any strict separation
between poetry and prose because both must spring from emotion and reflection. Wordsworth
writes, "They both speak by and to the same organs ... their affections are kindred, and
almost identical, not necessarily differing even in degree." He ends the Preface by saying that
whether he writes in prose or verse, the essential principle of his art—made of imagination and
sentiment—will employ "one and the same language" of meter or prose.

Analysis
• The Preface as Writing
Although the Preface itself is a work of prose, Wordsworth quotes much poetry within it and,
like his verses, places the same emphasis on common experience being illuminated by the
imagination. It is clearly the manifesto of an individual explaining a radically new approach to
something that has had a long existence already. In his essay he sees himself as both alone and
with the common experience of others as heralding a new age in understanding and
communicating feelings and emotions in a changed world. During his long career, Wordsworth
often saw himself as embarking on new and uncharted paths. He had a broad and thorough
education in the canon of Western literature and used this background in new ways.
Many past movements saw themselves as either inheriting literary traditions or making their
own, but Wordsworth was the first to base his work on the actual lives of ordinary people. The
Preface often alternates between proudly staking out his own principles and calling on the
views of his contemporaries, as when he begins with "Several of my friends are anxious for the
success of these Poems." His own voice is loud and clear, unafraid to criticize even good
intentions in others. He seems always aware of a performance art in which he quotes others
against each other, with his own views making the judgments on levels of quality. Whereas
Coleridge wrote with more abstract emphasis on the unusual and even the supernatural,
Wordsworth focuses on the ordinary, the voices of the common folk, of whose assumed
simplicity and homogeneity he approves, even though they may have little experience with
poetry.

The Preface was revised and republished several times: beginning from the period when
Wordsworth spoke as a young radical voice through his recognition as a leading literary voice.
As both a young and mature man, he embraced sharply different ideas from those of other
poets. During the high point of the Romantic Movement, which the manifesto seems to have
ushered in, his emphasis on feeling and individualism became commonly held.

• The Preface on Verse and Prose

The long essay in its various versions returns numerous times to the question of types of
writing. Wordsworth devoted his life to writing, never having had another occupation or
seeming to search for one. When his formal education ended, he traveled as widely as he could
with limited resources, and his poems are often shaped by these experiences. When Lyrical
Ballads appeared, it gained considerable attention. Its detractors objected to Wordsworth's
choice of subject matter and disagreed with his emphasis on common people, rustic and even
illiterate lives of poverty, real human passions, and feelings joined with reflection. Although
Wordsworth avoided extreme or vulgar examples of these things, his detractors found such
points of interest to be outside the realm of poetry. Having taken poetry to this new territory,
Wordsworth in the Preface proceeds to examine how the actual forms of writing can best
conform to such aims. He goes deeply and repeatedly into comparing and contrasting the range
of powers open to the poet in both prose and poetry.
Past literary movements frequently have emphasized one of these genres over the other,
depending on the work and reputations of the writers of the time. Wordsworth seems intent on
using the best of both, not excluding one in favor of the other, but seeking always to find the
most appropriate genre. He spent decades of his life writing poems in various formats and
voices but dispensed with many rules and formulas. The Preface is his great prose work and
never enters poetic territory despite its focus on it. Wordsworth repeats that efforts to privilege
verse or prose are wrongheaded, for both share the same instinct for truth and human passion
in the communal sense. Science, on the other hand, seems new and impersonal, based on facts
that poetry cannot affect or change. His aim to raise his readers' moral sense appears
untouched by scientific study or research.

To make prose and verse allies, in a sense, against the potential changes in society is also to
limit the poet's own impact in the future. Also, Wordsworth's emphasis on emotions will
eventually lessen his influence, as new ways of looking at the world will emerge and people will
judge the Romantic era with different eyes. In time, the effort to convince the world that poetry
and prose are essentially similar in approach and content can be judged independently of form
will result in these becoming commonplace ideas. However, these ideas were often ignored by
others, as poets and prose writers continued to go their separate ways.

• Wordsworth as Judge
The usefulness of the Preface in judging merit in poetry depends on several factors.
Wordsworth appears neither modest nor boastful when citing his own poems and measuring
them against others, including works of well-known writers. A few pages into the text,
Wordsworth harshly criticizes the 18th-century poet Thomas Gray. Quoting lines from one of
Gray's few poems, Wordsworth says the verse is far from simple truths that could be expressed
in either prose or more natural-sounding poetry. Wordsworth dismisses more than half of
Gray's sonnet as having no value. Gray's other major work, "Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard," with its canonical, or scriptural, lines "on the paths of glory" and "far from the
madding crowd," remains among the most quoted and best-loved poems of all time, so it may
seem odd to find Gray so faulted. Similarly, Samuel Johnson's writing is noticeably said to have
"contemptible matter."

But throughout, nothing indicates Wordsworth is issuing such opinions specifically to promote
his works over others. He seems to have given serious thought to his views and taken a long
and broad view of literature before his own time. The emphasis remains not on him personally
but on what any poet may achieve when he focuses on the correct foundations for a common
and humble source of truth. He appears willing to view his own work as an experiment in poetic
diction, newly formed and purified of what he believes it lacked before. He admits to putting
store in what others think of his work and having doubts about whether he can achieve the
high goals he has set. Wordsworth sees his Lyrical Ballads as innovative and connected to a high
level of truth and significance, if not a high level of life and society.
Ages after the Preface made its judgments, and Wordsworth's own reputation has endured its
ups and downs, it is doubtful many contemporary readers would use either his praise or his
criticisms as the basis for their own reactions to literature. Modern readers can understand
how Wordsworth saw people and society and his need to express new ideas in the hope they
would lead to progress in life as well as art. He returns again and again to the need to take
down barriers, as in the traditional separation of prose and poetry, but such forms continue to
exist, even strictly, for some. Passion and commitment to change motivate Wordsworth, and
using literature as a means to effect change can be understood and appreciated in a democratic
society that values free expression. If readers do not actively judge the writers Wordsworth
mentions, they can value him for his openness and ability to take risks in his opinions.