Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

by William Wordsworth

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is an essay, composed by William Wordsworth, for the second edition (published in January 1801, and often referred to as the "1800 Edition") of the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, and then greatly expanded in the third edition of 1802.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays, School, Romanticism, Read For School

First published January 1, 1800

About the author

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads.

Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years, which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and published, prior to which, it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

If an Author by any single composition has impressed us with respect for his talents, it is useful to consider this as affording a presumption, that, on other occasions where we have been displeased, he nevertheless may not have written ill or absurdly; and, further, to give him so much credit for this one composition as may induce us to review what has displeased us with more care than we should otherwise have bestowed upon it. This is not only an act of justice, but in our decisions upon poetry especially, may conduce in a high degree to the improvement of our own taste: for an accurate taste in poetry, and in all the other arts, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed, is an acquired talent, which can only be produced by thought and a long continued intercourse with the best models of composition. This is mentioned, not with so ridiculous a purpose as to prevent the most inexperienced Reader from judging for himself, (I have already said that I wish him to judge for himself;) but merely to temper the rashness of decision, and to suggest, that, if Poetry be a subject on which much time has not been bestowed, the judgment may be erroneous; and that in many cases it necessarily will be so.

[Momina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here, Wordsworth presents more of an explanation than an actual defense of the style chosen for his Lyrical Ballads. I liked the earnestness of his language and his theory, so 4 stars. In a nutshell, Wordsworth believes that the most important function of a poet is to present the universal truths of human nature and in doing so, the poet must keep himself in a closer proximity to the real, simple passions of men that are relatable by all, and must use the language of the common man. Tough diction is not a requisite of good poetry, believes Wordsworth. In saying this, he went against 17th century classicism of pedantry, and became a precursor of the 18th century Romantic movement. This small, little preface outlines Wordsworth's aesthetic beliefs, and I quite enjoyed reading it.

[sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

a contemporary hot take

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s fascinating how in the course of two years reading the same text can have a completely contrasting impact on you. I read this text two years ago and having had to re-read it now for another subject, I realized how interesting it actually is, especially for people who enjoy poetry and that can in some way relate to Wordsworth’s thoughts and way of thinking, even given the fact it was first published long ago, in 1800.

For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
(…)
Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge

[pagesandteastains · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, yeah. But eh.

[Dhwani Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading a few poems by Wordsworth and it felt so delightful. The way he talks about nature doesn't feel hyperbolic or fake to me at any moment. I love trees and grass, shapes of clouds and animals of all sizes. So when Wordsworth says that his heart leaps up with joy, I totally relate. 'The World is too much with us' is a poem that's written for me, in a different era but same emotions, same earthly binds. Another reason I love Wordsworth is because he names his poems 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798' when he could just name it Tintern Abbey. In my journal, on the day I was going to have intercourse after a long dry spell, I named my diary entry 'Entry to celebrate the day when the world held me in its arms', so I totally get it.

I read this preface to understand his style and poetic diction, to understand why he diverged and how he diverged from his contemporaries. It was an enlightening read. He talks about how one can only feel things, get excited with the passion of a common man and thus to express that excitement in words that do not belong to common man is taking away the edges of the emotion. It is to blunt it to fit a scheme of words and phrases that get you the most number of readers. I read somewhere that Wordsworth was conceited and the reason that worked was because he was a beautiful author. On any other man, it would be his downfall. Preface is an evidence to that. His vanity is up for display with no veils but then there are his ideas and there is the way he presents them that makes up for all of it and there is still a surplus. You need to give the man the credit he deserves. He started a fad and it is the one I dearly enjoy. I didn't care much about metrics, the sound of poetry before but in this essay Wordsworth says how sometimes you can only express pain and suffering through a known metric. When the words hurt, the metric soothes.

Poetry is supposed to be accessible. Not a task that seems insurmountable to novices or experienced. Music and words are the most basic ways to communicate with others. Poetry is just a combination of both and thus, it makes sense for it to be common, more rhythmic and serve a purpose. As Wordsworth puts it;

Poetry sheds no tears "such as Angels weep," but natural and human tears; she can boast of no celestial Ichor that distinguishes her vital juices from those of prose; the same human blood circulates through the veins of them both.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say?

I was 'forced' to read this as part of my 'Literary Theory & Criticism' course at University (English Major), and after much whining, I braved the first page. And I was left speechless until the end of the essay, in stark contrast to my initial refusal to bother with the text.

A very philosophical piece concerned with essence as opposed to the pretentiousness that characterized then, and still characterizes today, many a poet. But, I think, this text goes even beyond the confines of Poetry, because, as it unfolds, it exhibits ideas of almost existential value, such as the key element of pleasure and its function/importance in our lives (as well as the Poet's devices).

Although I was hardly interested in the Romantics, Wordsworth's Preface just widened my perspective and I might venture into those previously untroden (by me) areas of literature.

One of my favorite parts of the essay is the following, which, I think, is still true in 2014, although written just at the dawn of the 19th century:

"For a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and, unfitting it for all voluntary exertion, to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are daily taking place,and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies. To this tendency of life and manners the literature and theatrical exhibitions of the country have conformed themselves. The invaluable works of our elder writers(...)are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly, (...)and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse".

All in all, a great, rich and inspiring essay by Mr. William Wordsworth.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate this it made me want to hide in my wardrobe. I'm only adding it so I can get closer to my reading challenge goal

[keiths · Rating 2 out of 5]

This bored me to death honestly, but I see his points.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been ten bullet points

[sophiaaaaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

brutal to read, why must one use so many fucking words to say the same thing over and over (i also just hate philosophy so maybe that’s on me)

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐ Amusing, if a bit repetitive.

[spalanai ⛤ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge - it is as immortal as the heart of man.

such a wonderfully penned essay—poetry so perfectly defined!

x

[Ami 乁⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠o⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠ㄏ (written by Jane Austen) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a poet myself, I can't help but think that Wordsworth is too narrow-minded when it comes to the question of "what is poetry?"...like almost every other poet 💀

[Summer Bramall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some real gems hidden away in the reams and reams of waffle made to sound intellectual, but just succeed in making Wordsworth's points seem arbitrary.

Having said that, I really love the points Wordsworth makes about poetry as a whole, and just from the way he describes the role of poetry, especially in relation to its readers and other professions, it is clear how much he loved and was passionate about the written word.

[Eve Jarvis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like reading Latin and it was repetitive

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

“For the human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants, and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity must does not know this, and who does not further know, that whe being is elevated above another, in proportion as he puhat one this capability. It has therefore appeared to me, that to endeavour to produce or enlarge this capability is one of the best services in which, at any period, a writer can be engaged. but this service, excellent at all times, is especially so at the present day. For a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and, unfitting it for all voluntary exertion, to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies To this tendency of life and manners the literature and theatrical exhibitions of the country have conformed themselves."

This remarkable passage comes from the book under review by Wordsworth.

Here, Wordsworth explains his purposes in writing poems that are so seemingly artless and rustic-poems that eschew the high-minded diction typical of the 18th century poetic tradition that Wordsworth is writing against just as they eschew the spectacular extremes of an emerging popular press.

At this point in the argument, Wordsworth turns his attention to a brief but pointed analysis of his contemporary culture. It sounds surprisingly like our own.

In Wordsworth's view, people are more and more attracted to what he famously calls "gross and violent stimulants." and consequently they lose touch with the human mind's native "beauty and dignity." His poems are intended to counter this cultural trend and to restore readers' sensitivity to their inherent "beauty and dignity."

If Wordsworth left the argument here, it would certainly express his aesthetic and cultural aims, but it would be otherwise unremarkable. But Wordsworth pushes forward, offering his analysis of the current (that is, current at the turn of the 19th century) cultural moment.

As Wordsworth has it, his historical moment is distinguished by several unprecedented social and cultural forces which combine to "blunt the discriminating power of the mind" and "reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor."

He identifies three such forces:

1) The "great national events which are daily taking place" - It's problematic to know exactly what Wordsworth means by this (and probably there is not a single reference) but given the historical moment it seems likely that he is referring obliquely to the French Revolution and the violence which followed on its heels, including the war between England and France. England, too, was struck with considerable domestic unrest which threatened to become a national insurrection of "the People" against the established aristocratic and ecclesiastical orders.

2) The "accumulation of men in cities"- This demographic marker indicates that Wordsworth wrote during an era when England was being transformed from an agrarian to an industrial society. One consequence of this shift of the economic base, in Wordsworth's eyes, was catastrophic since it uprooted people from any sustaining relationship with the natural world, leaving them stuck in mindless industrial jobs and, to relieve their boredom, "craving... extraordinary incident." In other words, these are the people who have come so unmoored from the native dignity of the human mind that they can only be momentarily thrilled by "gross and violent stimulants" which they seek with an ever- increasing fervency.

3) All of these cultural, economic and social forces were having their influence on the literary output of the British press (the "literature and theatrical exhibitions of the country"). It is precisely the "gross and violent [literary] stimulants" that Wordsworth's poems in Lyrical Ballads are implicitly arguing against.

In this sense, Wordsworth's critique of his contemporary culture sounds very much like the critiques one hears about our own historical moment, as pundits from both the left and right strike out against violent video games, outrageous TV and radio talk shows, and the psycho-social toll of an increasingly pervasive media-from cell phones to the internet.

Much as these cultural critics today lament the fact that some older social order, some earlier form of small-townies community, is being demolished by our own seeking after "gross and violent stimulants" that our information technology hourly gratifies, so too did Wordsworth level similar charges against the media-fed culture of spectacle in his own day.

[sichen li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two things stuck with me from this preface that was surprisingly pleasant to read. The first: Wordsworth has a lot more… personality than I imagined. The second surrounds the idea of “high-ness” in art (I like to use the word high because it is so vague and unqualified, and pure as a result).

When describing the “common” language he uses, distinctive among poets of his time, Wordsworth writes: “Accordingly such a language arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings is a more permanent and a far more philosophical language than that which is frequently substituted for it by Poets, who think that they are conferring honor 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 creation."

Here he discusses a habit of poets to create arbitrary inventions, using language carelessly with no intention but to appear innovative and to excite. This they believe will bring honor upon themselves, when really it renders their work insignificant and unsustainable, much like a gimmick (rather than a genuine moment of insight, for instance).

Following this one might revisit the argument of aestheticism, because the attack on invention for invention’s sake seems extrapolate-able to this idea. I don’t think Wordsworth would necessarily respond negatively towards aesthetes. The substance of art for aesthetes is art, whereas these Poet inventors are without substance at all; their “highness” is empty while the aesthetes’ is accidental. The aesthete does what he does because he believes in what he does, so he is conscious; the inventor does so because he wishes to achieve “highness”, and he is less pure for it.

Creating “high” things and creating things to be “high” are very different things. One seems to be a true testament to the artist and the value of the work, while the other remains superficial and contrived. Artists especially, if not everyone, stand to gain from reflecting on their intentions.

I think much of Wordsworth’s opinion is still applicable to modernity, maybe now more than ever; we can barely fixate on anything less than stimulants, phenomena, and spectacles, let alone be excited by them. So much so that much of what is commonly memorable borders on the obnoxious, because good is no longer impressive when everything is overabundant. Moissanites may be easier to pick from a rough, but diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm currently reviewing for my theory exams, so there might be a swarm of theory reviews on my profile for a while lol. I want to post them so I could better commit them to memory, and also have some kind of "payback" for my tedious study sessions haha

Like my disclaimer above, this Preface by Wordsworth is also a disclaimer, albeit a famous one at that—it is the author's defense of his own work. Very bold move. He's like saying: let me preempt all the criticism and interpret my own work for you lol. Despite this, I can't help liking him. Among the other dead white literary theorists I've read, Wordsworth is one of the tolerable ones for me. I like his writing style, truly evocative of the Romantic movement in which he supposedly belongs. I like how he tries to pull the art of poetry from its godly heights and make it a craft of the people, for the people—he makes earthly what was previously divine.

It is a homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand and elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, and moves.

I don't entirely agree with all his points, and his theory is still directed to the dominantly white literary establishment, but this is one of the more pleasurable literary theory texts I've read. His intimate language, his attempt to bring out the wonderful in the ordinary, his insistence to retrieve poetry back to "common man," makes this otherwise dull subject a very insightful experience.

[Alberto]

Wordsworth y su justificación para iniciar un nuevo género poético.

The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems 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 the imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way.
[...]
The Poet might then be allowed to use a peculiar language when expressing his feelings for his own gratification, or that of men like himself. But Poets do not write for Poets alone, but for men. Unless therefore we are advocates for that admiration which depends upon ignorance, and that pleasure which arises from hearing what we do not understand, the Poet must descend from this supposed height; and, in order to excite rational sympathy, he must express himself as
other men express themselves.

[Ina]

Half the time I was like "What is this guy saying??" He's basically like lemme defend myself rq because I'm catching too much hate from people who don't actually know poetry but also poetry is for the common man so don't be pretentious about it and don't just read poetry just to look cool and say you have "taste" but also let me tell you what poetry is and who can call themselves a Poet and what is good/bad poetry all while contradicting myself a bajillion times. My head was spinning a bit at times. Despite all that, I did like and agree with some things he said! Had a socratic seminar on it in my English class and I thought we had a good discussion (although it was evident that some people did not read ...).

[Mary Tsiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite things silently gone out of mind and things violently destroyed, the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and all over time.

For someone who spends all these pages dictating how one should perceive poetry, language, and writing, ending on a note saying 'the public may/will judge me' sounds rather humble I must say.

[amal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Updated review after discussing this in class, it’s better than I thought 2/5
Ngl I didn’t read the entire thing I was required to read it for my lit crit course but because it has given me a headache I have rewarded myself by counting it as a book. I’ve read “I wandered only as a cloud” by Wordsworth and loved it however I don’t like what he has to say for himself he’s so stuck up. I also listened to this half asleep bcus I am sleepy girl rn and didnt really get what was being said or cared

[Rabbia Riaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been written in defence of "Lyrical Ballads". Wordsworth highly rejects the classical style of writing an is of the view that one should write with his emotions and in the language of common men. Its themes also should be from humble life as well as nature. As he himself did in Lyrical Ballads.
#Fill_Your_Paper_With_The_Breath_Of_Your_Heart

[Alenka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this (even though it is 1:22 AM here), it was humble and passionate, you can see why it is considered revolutionary.

[niamh]

For college

[maría · Rating 2 out of 5]

4th Year Subject: Introduction to English Literature. Unit 3: Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism.

[Ketelen Lefkovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for my master's.

[busé]

Read for: Introduction to Literary Theory

[Jemma Forster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating based on content rather than my own enjoyment