Introduction :-
“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is an essay by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In 1798 Wordsworth wrote, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads. Believing that the poems were so novel in theme and style that they required some explanation, Wordsworth wrote a prefatory essay to accompany the second edition of the poems in 1800; he then expanded the essay for the third edition of 1802.
About William Wordsworth :-
William Wordsworth was born in 7 April 1770, Cockermouth, United Kingdom. And died on 23 April 1850, Rydal Mount & Gardens, Rydal, United Kingdom. Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads. Some of the main features of Wordsworth's poetry are a spiritual veneration for nature, a dislike for modernity, an interest in the individual and the imagination, a fascination with childhood, and the employment of common language.
Now let me discuss about Wordsworth's preface of lyrical ballad.
“PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS” :-
“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is an essay by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In 1798 Wordsworth wrote, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads. Believing that the poems were so novel in theme and style that they required some explanation, Wordsworth wrote a prefatory essay to accompany the second edition of the poems in 1800; he then expanded the essay for the third edition of 1802.
The “Preface” is often considered a manifesto of the Romantic movement in English literature. Wordsworth explains his intention in his poems to express incidents from everyday life in everyday language and imbued with poetic sentiment. He defines poetry as a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, and the poet as “a man speaking to men”. Because poetry speaks of universal human emotions, it should use diction that is natural rather than artificial and self-consciously literary. Thus, Wordsworth sets himself apart from classicist poets who addressed an elite audience in language that was tied to formal rules. Wordsworth argues that poetry and prose should be close in style and that the aim of poetry should be to imitate nature and inspire emotion in the reader in a way that emphasizes pleasure. In the final part of the essay, Wordsworth outlines the procedure whereby a poet may observe the world around them and compose poetry through deep reflection on their experiences.
(1) What, according to Wordsworth, is the relationship in his poems between feeling and action?
In the “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” Wordsworth argues that in order to compose a successful and impactful poem, the poet must immerse themselves in a sort of process for poetic creation, which includes observing the subject matter, recollecting his or her emotions, contemplating those emotions, reviving those emotions in a composition, and, finally, enjoying the pleasure that his or her poetry creates.
For Wordsworth, a worthy poet must be able to convey his or her own emotional sensibility to the reader. Wordsworth claims that emotions and thoughts are strongly intertwined: “For our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our thoughts, which are indeed the representatives of all our past feeling.” The poet must be able to understand this connection, as someone who often thinks of the relationship between thoughts and feelings will become more emotionally sensitive and aware. Then, when one such sensitive person communicates his or her thoughts, the listener, “if he be in a healthful state of association, must necessarily be in some degree enlightened, and his affections ameliorated.” In other words, when a poet successfully communicates their emotions, readers will be vicariously enlightened. Because the poet is tasked with successfully conveying that “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” to his or her readers, the poet must engage in a process that allows him or her to find the right words to express himself or herself. But first, the poet must be uncommonly aware of emotions: the poet needs to have “a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind.” Such a sensibility allows the poet to “slip into an entire delusion, and even confound and identify his own feelings with [those of the people he describes.” In this way, a poet must be a sharp observer and must be able to contemplate and process the emotions that came with his or her observations.
The Wordsworthian poet ought to recollect their emotions “in tranquility" so that what he or she composes will not be momentary, but timeless. Wordsworth claims that “the poet is chiefly distinguished from other men by a greater promptness to think and feel without immediate external excitement, and a greater power in expressing such thoughts and feelings as are produced in him in that manner.” The purpose of this is so that the poet can better communicate their thoughts and feelings to others: “in order to excite rational sympathy, he must express himself as other men express themselves.” The Wordsworthian process for poetic creation involves not just contemplating emotions “in tranquility,” but contemplating those emotions until “by a species of reaction the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.” In other words, the poet should calmly process the emotions he or she initially experienced without distraction, until he or she feels in touch with those emotions again. Then, the poet may begin composing. This process allows the poet to create a distance between the initial emotion and the reader, in a way that tempers “the painful feeling which will always be found intermingled with powerful descriptions of the deeper passions,” and thus leads to greater pleasure. The process for poetic creation has so refined the poet’s composition, Wordsworth adds, that it will carry an enduring rather than momentary pleasure for its readers.
For Wordsworth, the essence of poetry comes in the form of a profound rendering of emotions, which helps the reader understand themselves better. As Wordsworth writes in his “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” the important thing is “that the feeling therein developed, gives importance to the action and situation and not the action and situation to the feeling” poetry, in Wordsworth’s eyes, hinges on emotion even more so than the actual event or situation it’s describing. This how Wordsworth consider emotions and action in his preface to lyrics ballads.
(2) What, according to Wordsworth, is the "great spring of the activity of our minds"?
According to Wordsworth, the spring of mental activity comes from contrast between different things. In poetry, the different things he contrasts are regular rhyme and rhythm schemes and rural themes and language. The combination of disparate parts confuses and stimulates the mind, and produces engagement and beauty.In the "Preface to Lyrical Ballads " Wordsworth discusses the pleasure we receive from the deployment of regular metrical language in a poem. This is Wordsworth's way of reassuring his readers that although his conception of poetry is indeed revolutionary in terms of its language and subject matter. And it is very hard to understand it's deep meaning. It made exercise of mind. And that's why Wordsworth said that, "great spring of the activity of our minds".
(3) What sort of truth does poetry give? How is this truth communicated? To what tribunal does it appeal?
Aristotle was the fist who declared poetic truth to be superior to historical truth. He called poetry the most philosophic of all writings. Wordsworth agrees with Aristotle in this matter. Poetry is given an exalted position by Wordsworth in such a way that it treats the particular as well as the universal. Its aim is universal truth. Poetry is true to nature. Wordsworth declares poetry to be the “image” or “man and nature”. A poet has to keep in mind that his end (objective) is to impart pleasure. He declares poetry will adjust itself to the new discoveries and inventions of science. It will create a new idiom for the communication of new thoughts. But the poet’s truth is such that sees into heart of things and enables others to see the same. Poetic truth ties all mankind with love and a sense of oneness.
Conclusion :-
Here, i covered mainly preface to Lyrical ballad, about William Wordsworth as a poet, and some of the important questions related to the preface of Lyrical ballad by Wordsworth.The Preface is an essay, composed, for the second edition of the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, and then greatly expanded in the third edition of 1802. In his preface we found he agrees the Aristotle's view and argues according to that. And beautifully described such things like, what is poet, what is poetry, great spirit of activity, diction, language of poetry, universal human emotions,made argument about poetry and prose, and also talk about his personal experience.. and many more.
Words :- 1507
References :-
1) Supersummary.com
2) Englishsummary.com
3) Wikipedia.com
4) enotes.com
5) litcharts.com
6) words.cat.com
