1

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth: A Biographical Survey
William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, on April 4, 1770. He
was the second son of John Wordsworth, attorney-at-law. William was a boy of moody
and violent temper. Wordsworth’s mother died in 1778; and in that year he was sent to
the ancient grammar school of Hawkshead. According to Wordsworth, his father never
recovered his cheerfulness after the death of his mother. His father died five years later.
Wordsworth, then, was placed under the guardianship of two uncles.

At Hawkshead, in the beautiful lake region, Wordsworth learned more eagerly from
flowers, hills and stars, than from books. To appreciate the influence of Nature upon him
in these early years, we must read his own record in The Prelude. Three things clearly
emerge from our reading of this poem: first, Wordsworth loved to be alone, and never felt
lonely with Nature; second, he felt the presence of some living spirit, real though unseen:
and thirdly, his impressions of Nature were delightfully familiar.
In 1787 Wordsworth joined St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge. Already
he had developed both the habit of verse and the temperament of poetry. Among his
published works are included two sets of verses written as early as 1786. He had been
well-taught at Hawkshead so at St. John’s College, he gave most of his time to reading
nothing but classic authors according to his fancy, and Italian poetry.
At St. John’s College, During his freshman year, he composed a large part of
the Evening Walk. The third book of The Prelude contains a realistic account of his
student life at college, with its trivial occupations, its pleasures and general aimlessness.
Even in these years, he was meditative, and responsive to the beauty of natural scenery.
In spite of the regret he afterwards expressed about the thoughtlessness of his youth in
paying too little heed to the impressive surroundings of the college, he has recorded many
of the charms of the University. Of his Cambridge friends, the chief was Robert Jones,
who subsequently took orders, and with whom, in 1790, he undertook the walking tour in
France and Switzerland.
In January 1791, Wordsworth took his B.A. degree. His guardians had chosen the
ecclesiastical profession for him. But it made no strong appeal to him. Perhaps before
taking his degree, he had experienced some disturbance in his religious and moral beliefs.
He pleaded for delay and convinced his guardians that he should spend a year in learning
French.
He went to France at the end of November 1791, and remained there till the end of
1792, for the most part in Orleans and Blois. France was at that time in the grip of the
Revolution. He took to France a keen sympathy with the principles of the Revolution. His
faith in the revolutionary idea was deepened and intensified by the intimate friendship
which he formed in Blois with Michel de Beaupuy, a captain in the republican army.

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Wordsworth wrote a remarkable poem on the French Revolution—a poem reflecting

the hopes and ambitions that stirred all Europe in the early days of the mighty upheaval.
Perhaps if a suitable opportunity had presented itself, he would have thrown himself into
a life of soldiering at this time. He had been a keen student of military history: and his
passionate, head-strong nature was greatly attracted by the idea of commanding troops,
and fighting for the revolutionary cause.
In Orleans, Wordsworth had a love-affair with Marie-Anne Vallon, a girl of a royalist
family, by whom he had a daughter, Anne-Caroline. During his stay in France,
Wordsworth wrote the greater part of Descriptive Sketches. Isolated passages truly
expressed his sympathies with the Revolution, his deep moral dejection, and even a mood
of religious unbelief.
In February 1793, Wordsworth published both Descriptive Sketches and An Evening
Walk. Of both poems perhaps, the principal interest resides in the conflict between style
and substance: things freshly and romantically observed struggle for expression within
the limits of a diction which has all the faults of the worst eighteenth century work. In the
same month, England declared war upon France. This was the first real shock which his
moral nature received. At once he ranged himself on the side of France.
February 1793 was further notable in that it saw the publication of Godwin’s Political
Justice. Under the influence of Godwin, Wordsworth began now to deify reason. In the
autumn of 1793, he started writing Guilt and Sorrow, his first considerable poem, and
many parts of it distinctively “Godwinian”. It was finished in 1794. In 1795 he began, and
in 1796 finished,The Borderers, A Tragedy, of which the gloomy perversities show him
struggling out of the ‘Godwinism’ in which he had been for two painful years involved.
For two years since his return from France, Wordsworth had led a wandering life
making no effort to find for himself a provision. In the early part of 1795 occurred the
death of a friend (Raisley Calvert), who left him a legacy of nine hundred pounds. He used
the independence afforded to him by this money to settle with his sister Dorothy at
Racedon, Crewkerne. It was here that The Border, era was finished; and
here Margaretor The Ruined Cottage was begun. The poem was finished at Alfoxden
where, in the summer, of 1797, William and Dorothy moved, in order to be near Coleridge
at Nether Stowey.
Wordsworth traces the recovery of his moral and poetical health to the influence, first
of his sister, and secondly of Coleridge. It was while these “three persons and one soul”
were living close together in Somerset that the Lyrical Ballads were conceived and
written. During this period of his life Wordsworth produced his best work. Dorothy,
though a silent partner, supplied perhaps the largest share of the inspiration which,
resulted in the Lyrical Ballads (1798). The publication of the Lyrical Ballads constitutes
the most important event in the history of English poetry since Milton.
After the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and his sister set sail for
Germany. The six months’ stay there did little to broaden Wordsworth’s mind or intensify
his powers ; because, unlike Coleridge, he was not sensitive to the thought of his age, and
not responsive to new influences. But it proved an agreeable holiday, and perhaps the
detachment from English surroundings served to throw the poet more exclusively upon
his imaginative memories. Certainly the poems he wrote during this time, such as Lucy

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Gray and Ruth, are especially happy in their simplicity and charm. On his return from
Germany, he and his sister went to live in Grasmere; in the Lake District. There rest of his
life was spent, except for occasional tours in Scotland and on the Continent.
In 1802, Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinsoir of Penrith. It was not a remarkable
event in his imaginative life. However, it proved a happy union. She made a good wife and
an interesting companion, but as an influence cannot rank either with his sister Dorothy,
or with Coleridge.
In 1802—3, Wordsworth’s political interests revived, as is clear from the sonnets of
that year. He wrote a series of political sonnets which form a new and important
development of his work.
The effect of the revival of political feeling on Wordsworth’s poetry is open to debate.
Conventionally, his sonnets on public affairs are numbered among the great ones of the
language. Gerard Manlay Hopkins complained that there was too much sententious
moralising in them. If we compare them with the French parts of The Prelude,we feel that
Wordsworth is now simply telling us about his political opinions, not re-creating his
political passions. When he writes from the more superficial layers of his mind, he is
capable of horrid flatness.
In 1807, Wordsworth published the Poems in Two Volumes. These show a wide
extension of his poetical power. New life is given to the sonnet and to the ode. The sonnet
is used with fine effect to express lofty patriotic sentiment. Here were printed, for the first
time, the Ode to Duty and the immortal Ode on Intimation of Immortality.
The volumes of 1800 and 1807 established Wordsworth as one of the great inventors
of poetical forms. But, from apart these volumes, taken together with The Prelude, The
Recluse fragment, Margaret or The Ruined Cottage (written by 1807), constitute a body
of poetical work of which the compass and original power are such as to place him among
the greatest poets.
The last period of Wordsworth’s life saw a decline in his poetic powers. By 1807, in
fact, his best work was done. The death, in 1805, of his brother John Wordsworth had
affected deeply his temperament, and he went back to religious orthodoxy. By the end of
1820, his thinking in religion and in politics lost that speculative rebel quality from which
it drew so much of its early strength; and his imagination tended to hoard barren
incidents and trivial perceptions to be the material of later poetry.
In 1814, appeared The Excursion, about which Jeffrey said, “This will never do”. Yet
Keats thought it “one of the three things to rejoice at in this age”. But a general decline of
poetic powers is unmistakable. In 1815 was published the first collective edition of
Wordsworth’s works. In the same year appeared the White Doe of Rylestorie; in
1819, Peter Bell (written in 1798), and The Wagoner’; in 1820, The River Duddon, and
Miscellaneous Poems.
A further decline of power was witnessed, in 1822, by the Ecclesiastical Sonnets and
the Memorials of a Tour on the Continent. To the last, however, it is unwise to regard
Wordsworth as negligible. At any moment the old power is likely to reassert itself. It is to

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the period of his decline that we owe, in The Prelude, the magic of the famous description
of Newton’s statue:
The marble index of a mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone.
Many, again, of his best sonnets come from the late period. Here and there, from
the Evening Voluntaries (1835), the old greatness flashes out. After 1835, Wordsworth
published nothing new in poetry.
Much of Wordsworth’s easy flow of conversational blank verse had true lyrical power
and grace. His finest work was permeated by a sense of the human relationship to external
nature that was religious in its scope and intensity. To Wordsworth, God was everywhere
manifest in the harmony of nature. He felt deeply the kinship between nature and the soul
of humankind.
The tide of critical opinion turned in his favour after 1820, and Wordsworth lived to
see his work universally praised. In 1842 he was awarded a government pension. In 1843
he succeeded Southey as poet laureate. Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount, April 23, 1850,
and was buried in the Grasmere churchyard.

Show that the 'Preface to the Lyrical Ballads' is a

plea for simplicity in theme and treatment.
Wordsworth was writing a new kind of poetry which was more to deal with Nature
than with man, was to treat higher, rather supernatural things, in a natural manner. This
could be done by using a simple and natural language selected from the language of the
common people. This meant a revolt against the Pseudo-Classical theory of poetic diction
which recommended the use of a very much refined, accurate and exact kind of language,
the artificial language of the people of the town. Wordsworth condemned the artificial
language, such as that of the school of Pope as a "masquerade of tricks, quaintnesses,
heiroglyphics and enigmas."

In Wordsworth's opinion, the language of poetry must not be separated from the
language of men in real life. Figures, metaphors and similies, and other such decorations
must not be used unnecessarily, as was the case with the artificial 18th century poetic
diction. In a state of emotional excitement men naturally uses a metaphorical language to
express themselves forcefully. The earliest poets used only such metaphors and images as
result naturally from powerful emotion. Later on, poets used a figurative language which
was not the result of genuine passion. They merely imitated the manner of the earlier
poets, and thus arose the artificial language and diction of the pseudo-classics. A stereo-
typed and mechanical phraseology thus became current. The poets must avoid the use of
artificial diction both when he speaks in his own person and when he speaks through his
characters. He must not use it when he speaks in his own person for it is not real language
of men, and he is a man speaking to men. He must not use it when he speaks through his

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characters, for in that case he must vary it according to the nature, rank and status,
thought and emotions, of the character who speaks it.
Main Tenets of the Theory
After a study of his Prefaces to the 1798 and 1800 editions of the Lyrical Ballads, we
can say that the following are the main recommendations of Wordsworth :
1. The language of poetry should be the language really used by men, especially by
simple rustic people who live close to Nature. But it should be a selection of such language.
All the words used by the people cannot be employed in poetry. Only selected and chosen
words used in common parlance can serve the purpose of poetry.
2. It should be the language of men in a state of vivid sensation. It means that
language used by people in a state of animation can form the language of poetry. In other
words, it should be alively language expressing living emotions of real, life-like men.
3. It should have a certain colouring of the imagination.
4. There is no essential difference between the words used in prose and in a metrical
composition.

A Critique of Wordsworth's Theory of Diction

Samual Taylor Coleridge was the first critic to pounce upon Wordsworth's theory of
language and to expose its many weaknesses. In fact, it was on the weak places of
Wordsworth's theory that Coleridge fastened, and he put the case for cultivating a special
diction for poetry. Coleridge argues:
(1) That a language so selected and purified, as Wordsworth recommends, would
differ in no way from the language of any other men of commonsense. After such a
selection, there would be no difference between the rustic language and the language used
by men in other walks
of life.
(2) Wordsworth permits the use of metre, and this implies a particular order and
arrangement of words. It does so differ in the poetry of Wordsworth himself. Metre
medicates the whole atmosphere, and the language of poetry is bound to differ from that
of prose. So Coleridge concludes that there is and there ought to be, an essential difference
between the language of prose and metrical composition.
(3) The use of metre is as artificial as the use of poetic diction and if one is allowed,
it is absurd to forbid the use of the other. Both are equally good sources of poetic pleasure.
(4) Coleridge objects to the use of the word real : "Every man's language varies,
according to the extent of his knowledge, the activity of his feeling. Every man's language
has, first, its individualities; secondly, the common properties of the class to which he
belongs; and thirdly, words

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and phrases of universal use." The word real, therefore should be substituted by
ordinary.
(5) It is not correct that the best parts of our language are derived from Nature. The
best words are abstract nouns and concepts. These are derived from the reflective acts of
the mind; and reflection grows as man advances from the so-called primitive state. As
man has advanced in thought, he has acquired new ideas and concepts which cannot be
expressed through the use of rustic language which is Primitive and undeveloped. If the
poet wants to use the rustic language, he must also ink like the rustics. The language of
rustics is curiously inexpressive. It would be putting the clock back. Instead of progression
it would be retrogression.
T. S. Eliot criticized Wordsworth for not practising his theory in all his poems. For
example, poems such as Intimations, Tintern Abbey, Ode to Duty, Laodamia, do not
follow Wordsworth's prescription about the language, and language in these poems is
richer and more sophisticated than those of the rustic people. They are not written in a
selection of language really used by men.'
Although Wordsworth's theory of diction has its weaknesses, yet it has its significance
too. He put an end to the use of false poetic diction "the worst of all the diseases which
have afflicted English poetry." He relieved poetry of an artificial and unnatural diction
through which it had lived its unnatural life of hot-houses for over a hundred years. He
certainly did much to bring the language of poetry tajis natural beauty and simplicity. To
quote Wyatt, he 'did poetry a valuable service; he took stock of the language of poetry,
cleared out a lot of old rubbish which had long ceased to have any but a conventional
poetic value, and made available for poetic use many words that had long been falsely
regarded as unpoetic."

Show that "The Preface, is a landmark in the history

of Criticism."
Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is a critical document of abiding
significance. His aim in writing it is to demonstrate the need of writing a new kind of
poems and to revaluate the poetry of the bygone period. As mentioned by Derek
Roper, his immediate objects were to attack the gaudiness and inane phraseology of
contemporary poets.

Wordsworth's fundamental objection to what he elsewhere calls a 'vague, glossy and

unfeeling language' is that to separate poetry from ordinary speech is to separate it from
human life. For him the great value of poetry is that it permits the sharing of experience,
the communication of truths, 'carried alive into the heart by passion.'
Of equal interest and significance, is Wordsworth's view of the nature and function of
poetry and the process of poetic creation. "It is the honourable characteristic of poetry,"
he writes in 1798, "that its materials are to be found in every subject which can interest
the human mind"; and this attitude underlies the whole Preface. In this way Wordsworth

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seeks to extend the scope of poetry by bringing within its folds themes chosen from
common life.
Traditionally, the function of poetry was supposed to be both to. instruct and delight,
but for Wordsworth the function of poetry is to give pleasure. However, his conception of
pleasure is an exalted one. Poetic pleasure is not mere idle amusement like rope dancing,
or sherry drinking. Serious poetry provides a pleasure of a more exalted kind. It is the
pleasure which results from increased knowledge and understanding. He considers
poetry superior to both history and philosophy of all writings, the impassioned expression
that is the countenance of all science. The appeal of science is merely to the intellect,
poetry complements science by adding feeling to its truths, and by its imaginative
treatment it makes people more fully aware of them.
Speaking about the nature of the poet he says in a passage in the 1802 edition of
theBallads that the poet is essentially a man speaking to man; he differs from other men
not in nature, but merely in the degree of his gifts. He is a man of greater imagination and
greater powers of communication. He can, therefore, comprehend truths to which others
remain blind. He can see into the heart of things.
To Wordsworth poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. The process
of poetry begins in a state of calm with the recollection of some past emotional experience.
Excitement gradually increases until the poet is almost relieving the experience yet with
a difference. The difference is that emotion has now been modified by thought. Thought
and emotion, conscious and unconscious elements continue their intimate interaction
until the spontaneous overflow begins and until these elements are ready to combine in a
poet.
Then the Preface gives us a theory of poetic diction and justifies the use of metre in
poetry. This Preface gave birth to future criticism by provoking controversies. It gave
valuable new sights into the nature, scope and function of poetry, and into the creative
process; above all, it set new standards for the discussion of such matters by its intense
seriousnesjs and by its inward experience. By comparison with Wordsworth's Preface,all
previous writings on poetry seem superficial. It is the first comprehensive attempt to build
up a theory of poetry. The Preface, indeed, is a rich piece of writing. Its themes are
manifold and it raises many questions. It discusses beautifully the relationship of poetry
and science, the use of metre, the place of pleasure in art. Aristotle, and poetry in general.
To quote Margaret Drabble, the Preface’ marks the beginning of a new age'. It is an
unofficial manifesto of the English romantic movement. It explained the aims and
objectives of romanticism and thus gave to the romantic movement a definite direction
and programme. As Smith and Parks point out: "It raised a wall between the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries; it dated a new era; it served to make intelligible for ever the
dividing line between the regions in criticism that might otherwise have seemed to flow
into one another. We do not often have many such dividing walls." 'The Preface is a great
irritant to thought; it poses numerous questions and provokes discussion. It heralded the
new dawn of democracy in literature and criticism. It was a death-knell of Augustan poetic
tradition and a beginning of a revolution in poetry. It established the poet as a mere copier
but as a creator, as a man with an intense sensibility, not rationality. He is no longer

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interested in manners of city life. The poet wants poetry to deal with the essential passions
of the heart and for this nature is a i etter subject than man in the city.

Give an estimate of Wordsworth as a critic. What are

his merits and demerits? What is his greatness as a
critic and his achievement?
Wordsworth was primarily a poet and not a formal critic. He became a critic of
contemporary poetry out of sheer necessity of his creative, poetic urges. The experiment
which he had made in the Lyrical Ballads (1798) called forth a systematic defence of the
theory upon which the Poems were written.
He was first greeted by the reviewers with scathing criticism, and he chose to demolish
the conventionalized public taste which had hitherto been nurtured by neo-classical
conventions which judged poetry on the basis of rules devised by Aristotle and other
ancients, and interpreted by the Italian and French critics. They cared for methods, for
outward form, and had nothing to say about the substance, the soul of poetry.
Wordsworth is the first critic to turn from the form of poetry to its substance, he is the
first critic who builds up a theory of poetry, and gives an account of the nature of the
creative process. His emphasis is on novelty, experiment liberty, spontaneity, inspiration,
and imagination, as contrasted with the classical emphasis on authority, tradition, and
restraint.
His critical output is not much. It is confined only to the Prefaces of 1800 and 1815, the
Appendix of 1802, the Supplementary Essay of 1815 and the three essays upon epitaphs
and the correspondence besides the 1798 Preface to Lyrical Ballads written jointly with
Coleridge. "Though Wordsworth left only a small body of criticism, it is rich in
suggestions, anticipations, and personal insights." (Rene Wellek). Wordsworth is the
author of a new Poetics dealing with the origin of poetry, the problem of communication
and its final effect.
His contribution to English literary criticism is manifold. He pioneered Romanticism; he
gave a new theory of poetic diction based on simple language "really used by men;" he
demolished the neo-classical canons of correctness, accuracy, authority, rule, artificial
language, and instead put emphasis on spontaneity, imagination, intuition and
inspiration. Discarding formal finish and perfection, he says, "All good poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." He discards Aristotelian doctrine. 'For him,
the plot, or situation is not the first thing. It is the feeling that matters'. (Scott James).
Reacting against the artificiality of 18th century poetry, he advocates simplicity both in
theme and treatment. He advocates a deliberate choice of subjects from "humble and
rustic life." Instead of being pre-occupied with nymphs and goddesses,he portrays the
emotions of village girls and peasants. There is a healthy realism in his demand that the
poet should use the language of common men. He removes poetry away from the fetters
of urban life of fashionable society of his age. By advocating simplicity in theme, he
enlarged the range of English poetry. He also dealt a death blow to the dry intellectuality

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 9

of contemporary poetry and filled it with lively emotions and passions. In this way he
brought about a revolution in the theory as well as the practice of poetry.
The credit of having democratised the conception of the poet should also go to
Wordsworth. According to Wordsworth, the poet is essentially a man who differs from
other men not in kind, but only in degree. He is essentially a man speaking to men. He
has certain gifts in a higher degree than others. He has a more lively sensibility, a more
comprehensive soul, greater powers of observation, imagination and communication. He
is also a man who has thought long and deep. Others also have these gifts, but the poet
has them in a higher degree. Wordsworth emphasizes his organic oneness as also the need
for him of emotional identification with other men. It will not do for him to sit high and
alone in his ivory tower; he must come out into the light of common day, and write of their
sorrows and pleasure.
Wordsworth also argued against the morality of eighteenth century poetry, by saying that
the function of poetry was not to instruct with delight but to please.
There are no doubt, some deficiencies and pitfalls in his views. As Scott-James points out,
flesh and blood of a rustic is not more human than the flesh and blood of a townsmen,
and his emotions are not profound. Besides, by confining himself, exclusively to rustic
life, he excluded many essential elements in human experience. In this way, he narrowed
down his range. "His insistence on the use of a selection of language really used by men
is always in danger of becoming trivial and mean". His theory of diction has rightly been
criticised by Coleridge. Coleridge has demonstrated simply that a selection of poetic
language as advocated by Wordsworth would differ in no way from the language of any
other man of common sense.
In fact, Wordsworth's claim to eminence as a critic is not due to his sustained and political
critical statement but due to suggestive and controversial nature of his critical statements.
Whereas earlier critics had tried to rule with the sceptre authority in their hands,
Wordsworth gives liberty to the reader to trust his own emotions.
In this way he has extended the frontiers of appreciative criticism. His real position as a
critic is summed up by Rene Wellek in the following words:
"Wordsworth thus holds a position in the history of criticism which must be called
ambiguous or transitional. He inherited neo-classicism a theory of the limitation of nature
to which he gives, however, a specific social twist; he inherited from the eighteenth
century a view of poetry as passion and emotion which he again modified by his
description of the poetic process as "recollection in tranquillity." He takes up rhetorical
ideas about the effect of poetry but extends and amplifies them into a theory of the social
effect of literature, binding society in a spirit of love. But he also adopts, in order to meet
the exigencies of his mystical experiences, a theory of poetry in which imagination holds
the central place as a power of unification and ultimate insight into the unity of the world.
"Though Wordsworth left only a small body of criticism, it is rich in survivals, suggestions,
anticipations, and personal insights."

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Give an estimate of Wordsworth as a critic. What are his merits and demerits? What is his
greatness as a critic and his achievement?
Wordsworth was primarily a poet and not a formal critic. He became a critic of
contemporary poetry out of sheer necessity of his creative, poetic urges. The experiment
which he had made in the Lyrical Ballads (1798) called forth a systematic defence of the
theory upon which the Poems were written.
He was first greeted by the reviewers with scathing criticism, and he chose to demolish
the conventionalized public taste which had hitherto been nurtured by neo-classical
conventions which judged poetry on the basis of rules devised by Aristotle and other
ancients, and interpreted by the Italian and French critics. They cared for methods, for
outward form, and had nothing to say about the substance, the soul of poetry.
Wordsworth is the first critic to turn from the form of poetry to its substance, he is the
first critic who builds up a theory of poetry, and gives an account of the nature of the
creative process. His emphasis is on novelty, experiment liberty, spontaneity, inspiration,
and imagination, as contrasted with the classical emphasis on authority, tradition, and
restraint.
His critical output is not much. It is confined only to the Prefaces of 1800 and 1815, the
Appendix of 1802, the Supplementary Essay of 1815 and the three essays upon epitaphs
and the correspondence besides the 1798 Preface to Lyrical Ballads written jointly with
Coleridge. "Though Wordsworth left only a small body of criticism, it is rich in
suggestions, anticipations, and personal insights." (Rene Wellek). Wordsworth is the
author of a new Poetics dealing with the origin of poetry, the problem of communication
and its final effect.
His contribution to English literary criticism is manifold. He pioneered Romanticism; he
gave a new theory of poetic diction based on simple language "really used by men;" he
demolished the neo-classical canons of correctness, accuracy, authority, rule, artificial
language, and instead put emphasis on spontaneity, imagination, intuition and
inspiration. Discarding formal finish and perfection, he says, "All good poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." He discards Aristotelian doctrine. 'For him,
the plot, or situation is not the first thing. It is the feeling that matters'. (Scott James).
Reacting against the artificiality of 18th century poetry, he advocates simplicity both in
theme and treatment. He advocates a deliberate choice of subjects from "humble and
rustic life." Instead of being pre-occupied with nymphs and goddesses,he portrays the
emotions of village girls and peasants. There is a healthy realism in his demand that the
poet should use the language of common men. He removes poetry away from the fetters
of urban life of fashionable society of his age. By advocating simplicity in theme, he
enlarged the range of English poetry. He also dealt a death blow to the dry intellectuality
of contemporary poetry and filled it with lively emotions and passions. In this way he
brought about a revolution in the theory as well as the practice of poetry.
The credit of having democratised the conception of the poet should also go to
Wordsworth. According to Wordsworth, the poet is essentially a man who differs from
other men not in kind, but only in degree. He is essentially a man speaking to men. He
has certain gifts in a higher degree than others. He has a more lively sensibility, a more
comprehensive soul, greater powers of observation, imagination and communication. He

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 11

is also a man who has thought long and deep. Others also have these gifts, but the poet
has them in a higher degree. Wordsworth emphasizes his organic oneness as also the need
for him of emotional identification with other men. It will not do for him to sit high and
alone in his ivory tower; he must come out into the light of common day, and write of their
sorrows and pleasure.
Wordsworth also argued against the morality of eighteenth century poetry, by saying that
the function of poetry was not to instruct with delight but to please.
There are no doubt, some deficiencies and pitfalls in his views. As Scott-James points out,
flesh and blood of a rustic is not more human than the flesh and blood of a townsmen,
and his emotions are not profound. Besides, by confining himself, exclusively to rustic
life, he excluded many essential elements in human experience. In this way, he narrowed
down his range. "His insistence on the use of a selection of language really used by men
is always in danger of becoming trivial and mean". His theory of diction has rightly been
criticised by Coleridge. Coleridge has demonstrated simply that a selection of poetic
language as advocated by Wordsworth would differ in no way from the language of any
other man of common sense.
In fact, Wordsworth's claim to eminence as a critic is not due to his sustained and political
critical statement but due to suggestive and controversial nature of his critical statements.
Whereas earlier critics had tried to rule with the sceptre authority in their hands,
Wordsworth gives liberty to the reader to trust his own emotions.
In this way he has extended the frontiers of appreciative criticism. His real position as a
critic is summed up by Rene Wellek in the following words:
"Wordsworth thus holds a position in the history of criticism which must be called
ambiguous or transitional. He inherited neo-classicism a theory of the limitation of nature
to which he gives, however, a specific social twist; he inherited from the eighteenth
century a view of poetry as passion and emotion which he again modified by his
description of the poetic process as "recollection in tranquillity." He takes up rhetorical
ideas about the effect of poetry but extends and amplifies them into a theory of the social
effect of literature, binding society in a spirit of love. But he also adopts, in order to meet
the exigencies of his mystical experiences, a theory of poetry in which imagination holds
the central place as a power of unification and ultimate insight into the unity of the world.
"Though Wordsworth left only a small body of criticism, it is rich in survivals, suggestions,
anticipations, and personal insights."

Why did Wordsworth consider "humble and rustic life" and

"incidents and situations from common life" as proper
subjects for poetry?
The poetry of the Pseudo-classical school was very artificial and unnatural. It was
extremely limited in its themes, as it was related to the city life alone, and in the city too
it dealt with the artificial and unnatural life of the fashionable people. It ignored rustic
characters and Nature; it confined itself to the fashionable world of the high class ladies

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and lords of London. It was blind to the beauties of Nature or the rustic characters such
as farmers, shepherds, wood cutters and so forth. Wordsworth reacted against this
approach of the eighteenth century English poetry.

According to Wordsworth, his principal object 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 imagination, whereby ordinary things should be
presented to the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make these
incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously,
the primary laws of our nature." Reasons for the Preference of Rustic Life
There are various reasons why Wordsworth preferred ' incidents and situations of
humble life' as the themes of his poetry. First, in this way he could enlarge the scope and
range of poetry and make a whiff of fresh air to blow through the suffocating atmosphere
of contemporary poetry.
Secondly, he knew this life intimately, was in sympathy with it, and so could render it
accurately and feelingly.
Thirdly, he believed that a poet is essentially a man speaking to man. Since he is a
man, and he has to appeal to the heart and mind of man, he must study human nature
and try to understand, "The primary laws of our nature." Now these primary instincts and
impulses which govern human conduct can best be understood by studying the simplest
and most elementary forms of life. Hence a preference for rustic characters and themes.
In humble and rustic conditions a man is more natural than in the sophisticated societies
of the city. He did not think city life to be a proper subject of poetry, because there the
fundamental passions of the human heart are not expressed freely and forcefully but are
inhibited by social codes and considerations of public opinion.
Fourthly, in rustic and humble life, the fundamental passions of the human heart can
be easily studied. From a study and understanding of these elementary feelings the poet
can proceed to study the primary laws of nature, and can derive certain principles of
human conduct. Feelings and passions of humanity are common to all mankind. They will
last as long as human nature lasts, and are not subject to fluctuations from age to age and
society to society. They are universal, permanent, as contrasted to those of the city people.
Fifthly, he preferred rustic and humble life because in that condition "the passions of
men are the result of nature." "They live in the midst of the grandeur and beauty of nature,
and as Plato much earlier has taught us, they must absorb some of that beauty and
grandeur." The emotions of the rustic characters are nobler and purer.
Criticism of His opinion on Rustic Themes and Characters
Wordsworth has been criticised for thus limiting the scope of poetry to humble and
rustic life. It has been said that upper class life is as suitable for poetic treatment as
humble and rustic life. In this way, Wordsworth excluded from poetic treatment wide
range, of complex human emotions which are experienced only in more sophisticated
societies. However, Wordsworth's views are to be judged in the historical context, as

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resulting from his desire to extend the domain of poetry, conquer new territories for it,
and thus to 'correct' the contemporary predilection for upper class, to the exclusion of
humble and rustic life.

Examine critically Wordsworth's views on the nature

of poetry and the process of poetic creation.
Defining poetry Wordsworth says in his Preface to the Lyrical
Ballads (1798): "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feel ings; it takes its
origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till, by a
species of reaction, the tranquillity 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 this mood successful composition generally begins,
and in a mood similar to this it is carried on.' Thus to Wordsworth poetry, is a matter of
feeling, mood and temperament. When the mood is on him it flows naturally, and without
labour.

There are at least four stages through which an experience has to pass before
successful composition becomes possible. First of all, there is the observation or
perception of some object, character or incident which sets up powerful emotions in the
mind of the poet. Secondly, there is recollection or contemplation of that emotion in
tranquillity. An interval of time, it may be quite long, say ten years, must lapse, during
which the first experience sinks deep into the poet's consciousness and becomes a part
and parcel of his being. For the filtering or selective,process, time and solitude are
essential. Thirdly, the integration of memory by the poet sets us, or revives, the emotion
in "the mind itself." It is very much like the first emotion, but is purged of all superfluities
and constitutes a 'state of enjoyment'. The fourth is that of composition.
Herbert Read has admirably summed up Wordsworth's theory of poetry and poetic
composition in the following words : "Good poetry is never an immediate reaction to the
provoking cause; that our sensations must be allowed time to sink back into the common
fund of our experience, there to find their level and due proportion. That level is found
for them by the mind in the act of contemplation, and then in the process of contemplation
the sensations revive and out of the union of the contemplating mind and the receiving of
sensibility, rises that unique mood of expression which we call poetry."
However, by spontaneity in poetry Wordsworth did not imply a complete rejection of
workmanship, or artlessness. He himself composed his poems with the greatest care. The
function of poetry, according to Wordsworth, was to delight. Even when the subject is
painful in itself, it must be so treated that it would result in an "overplus of pleasure."
Poetry is something felt in and felt along the blood. The proper subjects of poetry are
incidents, situations and characters taken from low and rustic life. In their condition of
life the elementary passions and emotions find a clearer and freer expression, for they are
not repressed or inhibited by conventions, as is the case with more sophisticated people.
They can be observed more clearly and expressed more accurately. The poet must deal

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with such simple subjects but so as to throw over them, "A certain colouring of
imagination whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way."
Poetry for Wordsworth was a composition in a language spoken by rustic, common
people, free from artificial poetic diction of the 18th century. Further more, poetry is the
pursuit of truth—of man's knowledge of himself and the world around him. Finally, poetry
is a great force for good.
It should also be noted here though 'the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'
and 'emotion recollected in tranquillity' are the very opposite of each other—the one
coming on a sudden, the other deliberately recalled to memory—Wordsworth makes no
difference between the two and endeavours to explain the one by the other. In the
reconciliation of the two the emotion originally aroused by the sight was recreated in
contemplation as nearly as possible till it overpowered the mind completely, driving
contemplation thence. So this is how poetry originates in emotion recollected in
tranquillity and is therefore, ultimately the product of the original free flow of that
emotion. Had no emotion been aroused of itself in the beginning, there would have been
no recollection of it in tranquillity and so no expression of it in poetry. The first stage in
the poetic process is 'the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings', the next their
recollection in tranquillity, and the last their expression in poetry.

Wordsworth's conception of poetry

Critics and poets, in all ages and countries tried to explain their own theory
and practice of poetry. Wordsworth, too, expounded his views on poetry, its
nature and functions, and the qualifications of a true poet in his Preface to
the Lyrical Ballads.

On the nature of poetry, Wordsworth states that:

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful passion”.

Internal feelings of the poet proceeds poetry. It is a matter of feeling and

temperament. True poetry cannot be written without proper mood and
temperament. It cannot be produced to order. It must flow out freely and
willingly from the soul as it cannot be made to flow through artificially laid

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pipes. Secondly, poetry is a matter of powerful feelings. It is never an

intellectual process.

“Poetry is born not in the mind but in the heart overflowing with
feelings”.

Poets are gifted with greater organic sensibility. They have greater ability to
receive sense impressions. Beauties of nature, which may leave ordinary
mortals untouched, excite poet’s powerful emotions and he feels an urge to
express them. Wordsworth’s heart leapt up with joy on beholding a rainbow
or daffodils dancing in the breeze and he expressed his overflowing feelings
spontaneously in his immortal poems.

According to Wordsworth, good poetry is never an instant expression of

powerful emotions. A good poet must meditate and ponder over them long
and deeply. Poetry has its origin in “emotions recollected in tranquility”.
Experience has to pass at least four stages before successful composition
becomes possible. Firstly, there is the observation or perception to some
object, character or event which sets up powerful emotions in poet’s mind.
Secondly, there is recollection and contemplation of that emotion in silence.
In this stage, memory plays a very important part. An interval of time must
elapse, in which the first experience sinks deep into the poet’s insight and
becomes his part and parcel. During the interval, the mind ponders and the
impression received is purged of the unneeded elements or superfluities and
is “qualified by various pleasures”. This filtering process is very slow; time
and solitude are vital. Thus, the poet’s emotion is universalized. Thirdly, the
interrogation of memory by the poet sets up, or revives, the emotion in “the
mind itself”. It is very much like the first emotion, but is purged of all
superfluities and constitutes a “state of enjoyment”.

This does not mean that the creative process is a tranquil one. The poet
points out that in the process of contemplation, “tranquility disappears”. The
poet has to “passion anew” while creating and is terribly exhausted as a
result. But creation, if it be healthy, carries with it joy or “an over-balance of
pleasure”. On the whole, “the mood of imaginative creation is enjoyment”.
The ability to create comes from nature and not from premeditated art.

The fourth and last stage is of composition. The poet must convey that
“overbalance of pleasure” and his own “state of enjoyment” to others. He
differs from ordinary individuals in communicating his experience to others
in such a way as to give pleasure. Metre is justified for it is pleasure super-

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added:

“Verse will be read a hundred times where Prose is read only once”.

Wordsworth himself closely followed his theory. He rarely made, “a present

joy the matter of a song”. He did not poetize an experience immediately; his
hardly ten poems are described unplanned. His composition had a wide
interval between an experience and its poetic delineation. He had a powerful
memory and at times he would fetch out an impression, “from hiding places
ten years deep”. All his best poems resulted from emotions recollected in
tranquility.

Recalling in silence enables the poet to see into the things deeply and
converse the very soul of an experience to his readers. Through such
contemplation the poet is able to impart to everyday object a ‘visionary
gleam’, a ‘glory’, a ‘light that never was on land and sea’. As such
recollection is best done in solitude, the poet loved lonely places, liked to
wander all alone, lost in reverie, and was known by the rustics of
Cumberland as the Solitary.

Wordsworth asserts that the function of poetry is to give pleasure. Even the
painful subject should give pleasure. The poet in a “state of enjoyment”
must commune this enjoyment to his readers. But pleasure is not the only
and the chief aim of poetry. It is not an entertainment or a pastime. He
tells:

“It is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned
expression that is in the countenance of all science”.

To be incapable of poetic feeling is to be without love of human nature and

reverence of God. Its mission is to:

“Arouse the sensual from their sleep of Death. And win the vacant
and the vain to noble Rapture”.

Poetry must serve the purposes of life and morality.

“Poetry divorced from morality is valueless”.

He hoped to console through his own poetry, the afflicted, to add sunshine
to daylight, to lead the people to see, to think and to feel and become more

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virtuous.

Any subject can be poetically treated but Wordsworth favored incidents and
characters from low and rustic life. He made the folks of Cumberland, their
lives and objects of nature, the subjects of his poetry, for in rustic life the
basic passions and emotions can be observed more clearly and expressed
more perfectly. Such elementary passions in rural settings are linked with,
“the beautiful and permanent forms of nature”. For Wordsworth it is the
feeling and emotion that is important and not action and situation.

“Feeling developed in a poem gives importance to the action and

situation and not the diction and situation to the feeling”.

Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction was a direct outcome of his democratic

preference for simple rustic life and characters. When the theme was simple,
the language must be simple too. It must be a selection of the language
really spoken by such men otherwise it would not be in character. He is,
therefore, critical of the artificial poetic diction of 18th century poetry.

Wordsworth theory of poetic diction

It has been generally supposed that Wordsworth’s theory of poetic language

is merely a reaction against, and a criticism of, ‘the Pseudo Classical’ theory
of poetic diction. But such a view is partially true. His first impulse was less a
revolt against Pseudo-classical diction, “than a desire to find a suitable
language for the new territory of human life which he was conquering for
poetic treatment”. His aim was to deal in his poetry with rustic and humble
life and to advocate simplicity of theme. Moreover, he believed that the poet
is essentially a man speaking to men and so he must use such a language as
is used by men. The pseudo classicals advocated that the language of poetry
is different form the language of prose while Wordsworth believes that there
is no essential difference between them. The poet can communicate best in
the language which is really used by men. He condemns the artificial
language. Thus William Wordsworth prefers the language really used by

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common men.

Wordsworth’s purpose, as he tells in the Preface was, “to choose incidents

and situations from common life”, and quite naturally, he also intended to
use, “a selection of language, really used by men”. He was to deal with
humble and rustic life and so he should also use the language of the rustics,
farmers, shepherds who were to be the subjects of his poetry. The language
of these men was to be used but it was to be purified of all that is painful or
disgusting, vulgar and coarse in that language. He was to use the language
of real men because the aim of a poet is to give pleasure and such language
without selection will cause disgust.

The use of such a simple language has a number of advantages. The rustic
language in its simplicity is highly emotional and passionate. This is more so
the case when these humble people are in a state of emotional excitement.
It is charged with the emotions of the human heart. Such a language is the
natural language of the passions. It comes from the heart, and thus goes
direct to the heart. In other words, through the use of such a language
essential truths abut human life and nature can be more easily and clearly
communicated. It is more ‘philosophical’ language inasmuch as its use can
result in a better and clearer understanding of the basic truths. But in city
life emotions are not openly expressed.

Wordsworth was going to write about simple life so he writes in simple

language and for this he adds metre. In his opinion, the language of poetry
must not be separated from the language of men in real life. Figures,
metaphors and similes and other such decorations must not be used
unnecessarily. In a state of emotional excitement, men naturally use a
metaphorical language to express themselves forcefully. The earliest poets
used only such metaphors and images as result naturally from powerful
emotions. Later on, poets used a figurative language which was not the
result of genuine passion. They merely imitated the manner of the earlier
poets, and thus arose the artificial language and diction of Pseudo-classics. A
stereotyped and mechanical phraseology thus became current. The poet
must avoid the use of such artificial diction both when he speaks in his own
person, or through his characters.

Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction is of immense value when considered

as a corrective to the artificial, inane, and unnatural phraseology current at
the time. But considered in itself it is full of a number of contradictions and
suffers from a number of imitations. For one thing, Wordsworth does not

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state what he means by language. Language is a matter of words, as well as

of arrangement of those words. It is the matter of the use of imagery,
frequency of its use, and its nature, Wordsworth does not clarify what he
exactly means by ‘language’.

Coleridge was the first critic to pounce upon Wordsworth's theory of

language and to expose its weaknesses. He pointed out, first, that a
language so selected and purified, as Wordsworth suggests, would differ in
no way from the language of any other men of commonsense. After such a
selection there would be no difference between the rustic language and the
language used by men in other walks of life.

Secondly, Wordsworth permits the use of metre, and this implies a particular
order and arrangement of words. If metre is to be used, the order of words
in poetry is bound to differ from that of prose. It does so differ in the poetry
of Wordsworth himself. So Coleridge concludes that there is, and there
ought to be, an essential difference between the language of prose and
metrical composition.

Thirdly, the use of metre is as artificial as the use of poetic diction, and if
one is allowed, it is absurd to forbid the use of the other. Both are equally
good sources of poetic pleasure.

Fourthly, Coleridge objected to the use of the word real. He writes:

“Every man’s language varies, according to the extent of his

knowledge, the activity of his faculties, and the depth or quickness
of his feelings. Every man’s language has, first, its individualities;
secondly, the common properties of the class to which he belongs;
and thirdly, words and phrases of universal use. For, ‘real’,
therefore, we must substitute, ‘ordinary’ or lingua communis.”

Fifthly, Coleridge pointed out that it is not correct that the best parts of our
language are derived from Nature. Language is letter-moulded. The best
words are abstract nouns and concepts. It the poet wants to use the rustic
language, he must think like the rustics whose language is curiously
inexpressive. It would be putting the clock back. Instead of progression it
would be retrogression.

Wordsworth's theory of language has strong weaknesses, but its significance

is also far-reaching. O. Elton concludes his discussion of the subject with the

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following admirable words:

“Wordsworth, led by his dislike of, ‘glossy and unfeeling diction’ …

was led to proclaim that speech as the medium desired; that he
guarded this chosen medium not indeed from his own misapplication
of it, but … proved its nobility in practice; that he did not clearly say
what he meant by, ‘language’, or see the full effect upon the diction
by the employment of metre; that he did not rule out other styles …
he did not touch on their theoretic basis; and that in many of his
actual triumphs, won within that sphere of diction which he does
vindicate.”

Wordsworth's views on imagination and fancy

In order to understand Wordsworth's view on imagination, we have to go to

his poems, and to his letter. In ‘The Preface’, the word occur first when
Wordsworth tells us that his purpose has been to select incidents and
situations from humble and common life and make them look uncommon
and unusual by throwing over them a coloring of imagination. This clarifies
that imagination is a transforming and transfiguring power which presents
the usual in an unusual light. The poet does not merely present “image of
men and nature” but he also shapes, modifies and transfigures that image
by the power of his imagination. Thus imagination is creative; it is a shaping
or ‘plastic’ power. The poet is half the creator; he is not a mere mechanical
reproducer of outward reality, but a specially gifted individual, who, like
God, is a creator or maker as he adds something to nature and reality. It is
the imagination of the poet which imparts to nature, the ‘glory and freshness
of a dream’, the light that never was on land and sea.

In making the poet’s imagination a creative power, Wordsworth goes

counter to the ‘associationist’ theories of David Hartley who had considerable
influences on the poet. Hartley and other associationist psychologist thought
that the human mind receives impressions from the external words, which
are therein associated together to form images. In this way, the mind
merely reflects the external world. But according to Wordsworth the mind
does not merely reflect passively, it actively creates. At least, it is half the
creator. Imagination is the active, creative faculty of the mind. As Florence
Marsh points out, for Wordsworth imagination is a mental power which alters

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the external world creatively.

“It is a word of higher import, denoting operations of the human

mind upon those objects and processes of creation or composition,
governed by certain fixed laws.”

It is through imagination that the poet realizes his kinship with the eternal.
Imagination works upon the raw material of sense impressions to illustrate
the working of external truths. It makes the poet perceive the essential unity
of “man, God and Nature” while “the meddling intellect” of the scientist
multiplies diversities.

Again, he tells that the poet is a man who thinks long and deeply, and so he
can treat things which are absent as if they were present. In other words,
the poet contemplates in tranquility the emotions which he had experienced
in the past and through imagination can visualize the objects which gave rise
to those emotions initially. Imagination is the mind’s eye through which the
poet sees into the ‘heart of things’ as well as into the past, the remote, and
the unknown. It is imagination which enables the poet to render emotional
experience, which he has not personally experienced, as if, they were
personally felt emotions.

The power of imagination enables the poet to universalize the particular and
the personal, and arrives at universal truths. Henry Crabbe Robinson
describes the process in the following words:

“The poet first conceives the essential nature of his object, and then
strips it of all casualties and accidental individual dress, and in this
he is a philosopher; … he re-clothes his idea in an individual dress
which expresses the essential quality and has also the spirit and life
of a sensual object. And this transmutes the philosophic into a poetic
exhibition.”

Stressing the importance which Wordsworth attached to the role of

imagination in the process of poetic creation, C M. Bowra writes:

“For him, the imagination was the most important gift that a poet
can have, and his arrangement of his own poems shows what he
meant by it.”

The section which he calls, ‘Poems of the Imagination’, contains poems in

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which he united creative power and a special visionary insight. He agreed

with Coleridge that this activity resembles that of God. It is the divine
capacity of the child who fashions his own little world:

For feeling has to him imparted power

That through the growing faculties of sense
Doth like an agent of the one great Mind
Create, creator and receiver both,
Working but in alliance with the works
Which it beholds.

The poet keeps this faculty in his maturity, and through it he is what he is.
But Wordsworth was full aware that mere creation is not enough, that it
must be accompanied by a special insight. So he explains that the
imagination,

Is but another name for absolute power

And clearest insight, amplitude of mind,
And Reason in her most exalted mood.

“Wordsworth did to go so far as the other Romantics in relegating

reason to an inferior position. He preferred to give a new dignity to
the word and to insist that inspired insight is itself rational.”

It should be noticed that here Wordsworth calls imagination, “reason in her

most exalted mood”. It is a higher reason than mere reason. It is that
faculty which transforms sense perceptions and makes the poet conscious of
human immortality. It makes him have visions of the divine.

Wordsworth deals with imagination at much greater length in his Preface to

the 1815 edition of the Lyrical Ballads. There he draws a distinction between
Fancy and Imagination. Wordsworth’s distinction between Fancy and
Imagination is not so subtle and penetrating as that of Coleridge. According
to Wordsworth, both Imagination and Fancy, “evoke and combine, aggregate
and associate”. But the material which they evoke and combine is different,
and their purpose in evoking and combining is different. They differ not in
their natures but in their purpose, and in the material on which they work.
The material on which Fancy works is not so susceptible to change or so
pliant as the material on which imagination works. Fancy makes things exact
and definite, while Imagination leaves everything vague and indefinite

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Rene Wellek’s comment in this respect is illuminating and interesting:

“Both Wordsworth and Coleridge make the distinction between

Fancy, a faculty which, handles, ‘fixities and definites, and
Imagination, a faculty which deals with the ‘plastic, the pliant and
the indefinite’. The only important difference between Wordsworth
and Coleridge is that Wordsworth does not clearly see Coleridge’s
distinction between imagination as a ‘holistic’ and fancy as an
‘associative’ power and does not draw the sharp distinction between
transcendentalism and associationism which Coleridge wanted to
establish.”

What Does Wordsworth Mean by "Spontaneous

Overflow of Powerful feelings"
By “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, Wordsworth opines that
poetry is a matter of mood and inspiration. Poetry evolves from the feelings
of the poet. Poetry’s source is the feeling in the heart, not the ideas of the
intellect. A poet cannot write under pressure. In this regard, poetry flows out
of his heart in a natural and fluent manner. Deep emotion is the basic condition
of poetry; powerful feelings and emotions are fundamental. Without them
great poetry can not be written. But T. S. Eliot in his Tradition and the
Individual Talent rejects Wordsworth's definition of poetry and holds the idea
that a writer should be impersonal and his writings should be devoid of
personal emotion and feelings.

Emotion Recollected in Tranquility

To begin with Wordsworth’s words, “I have said that poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquility.” At first glance, these two statements seem contradictory but
Wordsworth’s theory of poetry involved the fusion of the two statements. In
a sense powerful feelings and profound thought make poetry perfect.
Wordsworth told that the poet can’t rely on sensibility alone. He has to be a
person who has also thought long and deeply. After that, a calm mind is
equally necessary to furnish the past/ previous thoughts/ feelings.

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At first, the poet observes some object, character or situation. It sets up

powerful emotions in his mind. The poet doesn’t react immediately. He allows
it to sink into his mind along with the feelings which it has excited. Then comes
the recollection of the emotion, at a later moment. The emotion is recollected
in tranquility. There might be a time lapse of several years. Thus poetry
originates in emotion recollected in tranquility and so ultimately the product
of the original free flow of that emotion.

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