Bridge Course: Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

 Wordsworth’s Preface

What is the basic difference between the poetic creed of 'Classicism' and 'Romanticism'?

Classicism:

"The following of ancient Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship, especially from the Renaissance to the 18th century."

Romanticism:

 "A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual."

In general, Classicism can be defined Art or literature echoing elements of the styles of ancient Greece or Rome.  Classicism is based on the idea that nature and human nature could be understood by reason and thought. It has attached much more importance to reason than imagination. More broadly, Classicism refers to the adherence to virtues including formal elegance and correctness, simplicity, dignity, restraint, order, and proportion. Toward the end of the eighteenth-century, Romanticism emerged as a response to Classicism. While the Classicists thought of the world as having a rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and beliefs.

As the definition suggests that the Romantic movement was all about imagination in art and literature. This movement emphasized on inspiration and subjectivity. Unlike the classicism there were no restrictions. They gave much importance to imagination, interest in common man and childhood, celebration of individuals, love of nature, and rustic life. Romanticism was influenced by The French Revolution. This revolution was about the rights of the third regime (peasant or common people). Most of the poets of the romantic movement were influenced by the French Revolution. The best-known expression of French revolutionary ideas was the slogan “Liberty! Equality! Fraternity”, though this was simplistic and did not span all ideas of the revolution.

To understand this concept better watch this video.

Why does Wordsworth say 'What' is poet? rather than Who is poet?

In the preface to the “lyrical Ballad” William Wordsworth asks the question that ‘what is poet’ rather than ‘who is poet’. In the preface he explains that what is poet,

He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness.  He has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than one supposed to be common among mankind.  He is a man pleased with his own passions and volition, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volition and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually compelled to create them where he does not find them.

In short, what Wordsworth tying to prove is that a poet is man of more comprehensive soul. He is different from others because he has more lively sensibility and passions are more enthusiastic and powerful. He can create new ideas and present them to us. Th poet can depict human life in different ways. The poet seeks the truth about life and nature. His main purpose is to give pleasure by painting out the different branches of knowledge of this vast universe.

What is poetic diction? Which sort of poetic diction is suggested by Wordsworth in his Preface?

Poetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the time of the Romantic revolution, when William Wordsworth challenged the distinction in his Romantic manifesto, the Preface to the second (1800) edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798).

 Poetic diction means the choice pf words. The choice that is different for each poet. He defines poetic diction as a language of common men. It is not the language of the poet as a class but the language of mankind. It is the simple expression of pure passions by men living close to nature. The poetic language is the natural language; therefore, it must be spontaneous and instinctive. The real poetic diction, in the view of the Wordsworth, is the natural overflow of the feelings, therefore, it is immune to the deliberate decoration of the language. Wordsworth’s aim was to write poetry which symbolizes the life in its simple and rustic state. The poetry, for Wordsworth, must be like the part of daily life speech. It should be written in such language that anyone who wants to read it could comprehend it easily.

What is poetry? With the reference to the 'Daffodils - I wandered lonely as a cloud' 

According to Wordsworth,

 

‘Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science’.

Wordsworth also gives his famous definition of poetry as

 

"The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility".

In the above given definition Wordsworth says that, when he the beautiful view like the field of long and bustling row of daffodils, his mind overflows with the powerful feeling. Later, when he set in tranquility on his couch, he recollects the image and words. We can understand this definition with the reference to his poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud". The poem has total of 4 stanzas. The first three stanza are in the past tense; the fourth stanza is in the present tense.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

"For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils"