William Wordsworth as a Critic : 'Preface' to 'Lyrical Ballads.'
☆ Preface to the 'Preface' by William Wordsworth in the Second Edition of 'Lyrical Ballads' in 1800 :
The Preface to 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. It has come to be seen as a de facto manifesto of the Romantic movement.
The four guidelines of the manifesto include:
• Ordinary life is the best subject for poetry. (Wordsworth uses common man's language.)
• Everyday language is best suited for poetry
• Expression of feeling is more important than action or plot
• "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of emotion" that "takes its origin from emotion, recollected in tranquility." - William Wordsworth
(Source : Wikipedia)
☆ Criticism on 'The Preface' to 'Lyrical Ballads' :
■ William S. Ward, in his study of the contemporary reception of Wordsworth's poetry,’ puts :
"...the reviewers seem not to have
realized that a new literary sun was on
the horizon or that there is as anything
really new or radical in either the
Wordsworthian theory or practice."
■ In the collected edition of his contributions to the 'Edinburgh Review (1844),' Jeffrey did offer a half-hearted
apology for his former severity :
"I have spoken in many places rather too
bitterly and confidently of the faults of
Mr. Wprdsworth' poetry: And forgetting that, even Pn my own view of them, they were but faults of taste, or venial self-partiality, I have sometimes visited them, I fear, with an asperity which should be reserved for objects of Moral reprobation. If I were now to deal with the whole question of his poetical merits, though my judgment might not be substantially different, I hope I should repress the greater part of these vivacites of expression..."
(Source : https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/89443/RICE0473.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)
Question 1 : What is the basic difference between the poetic creed of 'Classicism' and 'Romanticism'?
Answer : the difference is that classicists forged their emotions under the furnace of rules and parameters set by the classical Greek and Roman writers such as Homer, Virgil, and Horace; whereas rejecting this conventional values and coming up with natural and as-it-is 'vivid emotions' expressed without deliberate negligence towards ornamental and artificial style of their predecessors, Romantics launched an epoch of Sensationalism in the history of the English Literature of the early 19th century.
Here I have put an image which is apt to differentiate between the true great movement of the English Literature - Neoclassicism (1700-1798) and Romanticism (1798-1837) :
Question 2 : Why does Wordsworth say 'What' is poet? rather than Who is poet?
Answer : I would like to mention two reasons which I think to be the idea of Wordsworth when he, in his 'Preface' to 'Lyrical Ballads,' discusses the nature of a poet and calls in query as 'What' is a poet, rather than 'Who' is a poet; if we grammatically see, then we can say that we attach 'Who' with a person but here Wordsworth perhaps must have tried to be more precise while defining a poet as a separate but more sentimental identity from ordinary people.
He writes :
"...by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart."
He seems conferring prestige to the ideal poetical characteristics :
"Taking up the subject, then, upon general grounds, I ask what is meant by the word Poet? What is a Poet? To whom does he address himself? And what language is to be expected from him? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them. To these qualities he has added a disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions, which are indeed far from being the same as those produced by real events, yet (especially in those parts of the general sympathy which are pleasing and delightful) do more nearly resemble the passions produced by real events, than any thing which, from the motions of their own minds merely, other men are accustomed to feel in themselves; whence, and from practice, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and feelings which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own mind, arise in him without immediate external excitement."
Question 3 : Discuss 'Daffodils - I wandered lonely as a cloud' with reference to Wordsworth's poetic creed.
Answer : Let us divide the poem under two functionaries in order to get best understanding of it :
(1) Technicality of the Poem 'Daffodils' :
The poem has the four six-line stanzas which follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme : ABABCC. Each line is metered in Iambic Tetrameter. The first three stanzas are written in past tense and the last one is in present tense.
Wordsworth employs several figures of speech to describe the profundity of impression he came across while beholding the 'golden daffodils.'
-> Use of Personification :
"A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
-> Use of Simile :
"Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:"
"And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."
-> Use of Hyperbole in the Following Lines of the Second Stanza :
"Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance."
(2) Insight or the Core Idea of the Poem 'Daffodils' :
As Wordsworth himself defines 'Poetry' as "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" which "takes its origin from the emotions recollected in tranquility" - we can see that the poet is giving account of the imprint of empyreal sight of daffodils he fortunately happens to come across along in the company of his dear sister Dorothy.
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