Preface To Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth Analysis

Wordsworth is a poet of nature, a poet of morality. Scholar Eugene Stelzig explores this idea more throughout his article, "Wordsworth’s bleeding spots: Traumatic memories f the absent father in The Prelude." Stelzig states that at the same time as being the poet of morality, Wordsworth is also, "a poet of human continuity, of growth and development."(533) Stelzig's word choice relates to The Prelude as a whole, rather than each book in sections. The main reasoning for the autobiographical content within the psuedo-epic is to transcribe the history of what made William Wordsworth into the poet that he was and that he is viewed as. This allows the poem to act as a palimpsest. Revision after

William Wordsworth was a poet who wrote in the Romantic Era. The Romantic Era lasted approximately fifty years. It is estimated that the era began around 1800, and ended in around 1850. The Romantic Period is often described as a period that was an artistic, musical, literary, and intellectual movement that took place toward the ending of the eighteenth

Like mentioned above, Wordsworth writes The Prelude as a tool in which to show exactly how youthful memories are able to be turned into something very constructive in adulthood. “The poem is not only the record of those memories, but records, with great sensitivity, the very process

“Lyrical Ballads” established such a new theory of poetry that it is used to mark the end of the Neo-Classical period of literature and the beginning of the Romantic period. One of the most touching pieces of poetry in the collection is William Wordsworth’s “What is a Poet?” This poem spoke to the core of my being and broke down barriers that I had been building in my mind years. It had such powerful effects on me because, I have always enjoyed the beauty of poetry but my relationship with it has dealt mostly with the rhythm in rhyme. I’ve been performing live with musicians at open mics for eight years now. I never enjoyed being called a rapper and I never considered myself an actual poet because, I have no recordings nor published poetry to show for. Even though poetry has always been a part of my life, I’ve consider it more of a personal release than my life’s work. In “What is a Poet”, William Wordsworth described the poetic soul with such depth and accuracy that while I read it, I became completely aware of the fact that I am a true poet. I have lived with this art form and chased the freedom in it for years because recording has always felt so slavish and mechanical. William Wordsworth’s ability to reflect upon his own poetry and the practice of poetry in general was absolutely astounding. In this poem he expressed the qualities of a poet, the obligations of a poet, and the common sentiments of poets alike with such perspective that every word still profoundly

Coleridge sees the effect the writings of the Romantic Era has on those who are not writers which make the assistance of memory and dreams in the writings much more significant. Along with Coleridge’s significance to the Romantic Era, William Wordsworth also contributed to the movement of memory and dreams in the writings of the Romantic Era.

To the Romantics, the imagination was important. It was the core and foundation of everything they thought about, believed in, and even they way they perceived God itself. The leaders of the Romantic Movement were undoubtedly Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his close friend, William Wordsworth. Both were poets, and both wrote about the imagination. Wordsworth usually wrote about those close to nature, and therefore, in the minds of the Romantics, deeper into the imagination than the ordinary man. Coleridge, however, was to write about the supernatural, how nature extended past the depth of the rational mind.

Bringing forth the fact that Wordsworth finds such “tranquil restoration” when he reminisces over these fond times and sights that it would also inhibit in him a feeling of “unremembered pleasure.” And though Wordsworth finds no sense of absolution with modern society, he doesn’t hate it for what it is. In fact, he simply just gives off this feeling that he simply doesn’t belong in cities or towns and instead jells more into natures embrace. Another reading post by Jaqueline coincides with Wordsworth’s views of the natural world. This is on full display when she herself mentions that she can heavily relate to the component of memory that that uses nature as a backdrop to fuel “current joys, hopefulness for the future, a sense of wholeness, healing and a knowledge.” The appreciation of such a connection is breathtaking and harkens back to the “aspect more sublime.” (37) which we also discussed in depth during last week’s lecture session. Jaqueline also brings up the fact that Wortdsworth doesn’t “mourn” the fact he has lost that connection to nature, that he simply must be happy with both who he is and how his nature with the world around him has matured since those days have come and passed. Exhuming the idea that Wordsworth has come to terms with the mankind’s overall evolution and relationship with the natural world. That is a past point brought up in my C3

Wordsworth’s ideas that prompted the Romantic Period were due to his upbringing and experiences as a student. Born in the spring of 1770, Wordsworth grew up with four siblings in England along the Derwent River, exposing him early on to nature’s beauty. He drew inspiration for his autobiographical poem, The Prelude, from his schooling at Cockermouth, as well as from his education in Hawkshead, where he and his brother attended school. He then attended Cambridge, using his experiences there to note his changing ideas of his education in the third book of The Prelude.

(“lonely rooms, and mid the din / Of towns and cities, I have owed to them / In hours of weariness, sensations sweet”). Once again repetition is used to firmly imprint the idea in our mind of how essential this memory has been to his happiness during testing times, “How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee / … / How often has my spirit turned to thee”. The simplicity in which he aims to convey this idea relates back to his poetic purpose of recovering “the naked and native dignity of man” (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1801), doing this required using “a selection of language really used by men” (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1801). The use of repetition emphasises the point he is trying to convey, the audience is made focus on just how beneficial state of mind can be when we are in unpleasant circumstances. The first person narrative style places us in the shoes of Wordsworth, and we ponder the role positive thought has played in our own lives. With the poet himself, memories of nature sustained and restored him when weighed down by the burdens of the world, and we are compelled to question where he would be without

He also wrote Songs of Experience but after the Industrial Revolution. William Wordsworth, on the other hand, continued on an optimistic route and ignored the Industrial Revolution in his poems. He instead wrote about nature only and its beauty. Previous Augustan poets were more controlled and rule governed. They were also concerned with order.

As this question states, William Wordsworth’s poetry demonstrates “nature poet,” “real language of men,” “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” and “emotion recollected in tranquility.” The first is the easiest to indemnify. In Wordsworth’s poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood", there are several lines that depict nature. An example is the line, “The Rainbow comes and goes, / And lovely is the Rose.” (Wordsworth 10 – 11). In the preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth defines “real language of men” as a line or a sequence of lines that are written in “the language of prose” rather than the poetic metre normally associated with poetry (Preface to Lyrical Ballads n.d.). An example of this would be

Born in the late 1770s, Wordsworth’s life was plagued with disaster and death from an early age. At the age of 7, his mother passed away, and his beloved sister Dorothy was sent to live with relatives. At the age of 13, his father became deathly ill after climbing through the mountains, passing away a few days later. After all this horror had passed, Wordsworth found himself sitting on a boat on a lake. It was here that Wordsworth realised the power and awe of nature, and how he too was at Her mercy. These experiences shaped the way Wordsworth wrote his poetry, and the way in which he sought inspiration. Writers of the Romantic Era tended to focus on three specific genres: childhood, the environment, and industrialisation. Generally, the themes written about had a sense of loss, of damage to the human spirit. The poem The World Is Too Much With Us expresses Wordsworth’s anger and frustration at his world; at this point in history, the Industrial Revolution had swept through Europe, creating factories and

Upon the very first reading of William Wordsworth’s ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting The Banks of The Wye During a Tour, 13th July 1798’, one comes across the theme of memory and Wordsworth’s love for nature ( themes frequently explored by Wordsworth in several of his poems). However, both these themes work in an inter-connected and intertwined manner in the said poem.

Preface to Lyrical Ballads is an essay written by William Wordsworth. Lyrical Ballads poem was published in 1798, while the preface was published in 1802. Wordsworth was very influenced by the French revolution, and he wanted equality in the society. His friends asked him to write the preface in order to explain to them why he wrote Lyrical Ballads in a way that differs from other poets’ style. The overall purpose of the preface was to talk more about the composition of poetry. Wordsworth defends his unusual style, diction and subjects of poems. He also includes in his writing a definition of poet and poetry. In addition, he related men to nature; he always includes in his writing this connection. Wordsworth’s essay is simple and easy to understand

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a English Romantic poet. Wordsworth’s earliest poetry was “published in 1793 in the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. In 1795 he met Samuel Coleridge” (Encyclopedia.com), and produced Lyrical Ballads first published in 1978, it is largely credited as the work that begain the English Romantic movement. In the third edition of Lyrical Ballads published in 1802 the “Preface” to Lyrical Ballads was added to the poems and on page 242, Wordsworth gave his now famous poetry definition as being "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility". In 1798 The Prelude, perhaps one of the greatest works of English literature was first published. It is a long autobiographical poem that is a personal history of the growth of Wordsworth’s own mind. It was a constant work in progress, with Wordsworth working on it until his death in 1850.