PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS – AN OVERVIEW

 

    Lyrical Ballads refers to a poetic collection brought out in 1798, which consists of verses by the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The work carries a great deal of historical significance in that it is generally taken to mark the dawn of the Romantic Revival movement in English poetry. The historical significance attributed to the work basically emanates from the fact that the poems compiled in the collection were instrumental in initiating a paradigm shift with regard to how poetry was subsequently conceived and composed in England.
 
The Preface
 
    The basic reason why Wordsworth affixed a Preface to Lyrical Ballads is to provide an elucidation of the avowed principles underlying the poems contained in the collection. This of course is warranted by the fact that the poems in it mark a conscious break with the neoclassical vein of writing poetry, which had conditioned the English public’s taste in poetry for nearly a century and a half at the time. It is however noteworthy that Wordsworth added the Preface to the collection only in its second edition brought out in 1800, the first edition of the work merely contained a one page advertisement. In the third edition published in 1802, he expanded the Preface by affixing an appendix to it. The full text of the Preface today is of course the one with the appendix added on. The reason as to why Wordsworth did not append the Preface when the collection was first brought out is of course only too obvious, he wanted to wait and gage how it was received. When the response to the work proved to be positive, he naturally felt an explanation was in order. The explanation thus provided by Wordsworth could be appraised in terms of four aspects. These are the nature of poetry, appropriate subject for representation in poetry, conception of a poet, and finally, the language proper for writing poetry. These aspects that Wordsworth elucidated to offer a rational understanding of the logic informing the poems in the collection, subsequently came to epitomize the essence of poetry written during the Romantic Revival in general. This is why the Preface has become such an important critical document epitomizing a basic manifesto of Romantic poetry itself.
 
Nature of Poetry
 
    There are three essential points that Wordsworth insists with regard to the nature of poetry. Firstly, it should be a natural expression that occurs of its own accord, without being deliberately forced. This is to say, poetry should be a spontaneous gushing out, not something that is premeditated. Secondly, poetry should typify a medium that embodies the feelings felt by the poet. This is to say, it must be a phenomenon that encapsulates the sentiments that well up in the heart of the poet, not the critical thoughts that are a product of one’s intellect. Thirdly, a poem should not be founded on any sudden impulse or sentiment. It should depict only those that are genuinely enduring, which makes it possible to recollect them at a later point of time in a moment of peace that Wordsworth dubs tranquility. The process of poetic creation envisaged by Wordsworth thus may be explained as follows. To begin with, there is perception, which invokes the primary impulse in the poet. This is followed by a period of rumination, during which the invoked impulse is allowed to settle down and mature in the poet’s subconscious. Then comes recollection, in which the submerged impulse is catapulted to the conscious part of the poet’s mind. Finally the recollected impulse is realized as a poem through expression in language by the poet.
 
Poetic Subject
 
    Regarding the question of what is to be the appropriate subject for representation in poetry, Wordsworth professes events and incidents taken from rustic life as the object to strive for. However, he specifies an important stipulation to be implemented in this regard. Events from rustic life when portrayed in poetry, must not be done so as they are. Rather they should be depicted imaginatively, so that such incidents plain as they are, would be appealing when set forth poetically. There are three reasons that Wordsworth offers for recommending events from rustic life as the proper subject for poetic representation. Firstly, the conditions of rustic life do not place any undue restriction on the expression of feelings. Consequently, the emotional self of humanity is enabled to attain ample maturity in such a state of living. Secondly, the manners and customs in rustic life directly emanate from the passions of the heart. Hence they are relatively more durable and simple to understand. Thirdly, the character of rural occupation is such that the emotional state of individuals is not severed from the various forms of nature. The upshot is that they are pressed into a harmonious situation of coexistence, which inexorably binds them together. Notwithstanding the fact he offers many reasons of his own, it is noteworthy that Wordsworth’s designation of events from rustic life as the appropriate content for poetry, originally derives its inspiration from the philosophical postulations of the French thinker Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau’s basic point is that humanity is essentially good, but this innate goodness is tainted in the due course by the corrupting influence of civilization. His suggestion therefore is humanity should shun the sophisticated ways and means of civilized living, and return to nature in order to retain its inherent purity. It is this clarion call made by Rousseau to embrace nature and the simple way of living it entails, which underlies Wordsworth’s proposal regarding the proper subject in poetry.
 
The Poet
 
    Wordsworth’s theorization of who a poet is, encompasses radical implications to consider. It is however radical not because it is wild or farfetched, but because it is simple, and most importantly, dismantles the traditionally held view. For Wordsworth, a poet is no special individual, who as the Greeks presumed was divinely inspired by the muse. A poet is just another human being, no different from anybody else. In fact, everybody in Wordsworth’s opinion is potentially a poet. This is to say, the qualities required to become a poet is present inside all of us, and what anyone has to do in order to become a poet in the actual sense, is make a conscious effort to sharpen them. The qualities to be thus sharpened are essentially twofold. The first is the power of the imagination, which denotes the ability to conjure up emotions and feelings to an eminent degree, even when the external catalyst is absent. The second is the power of expression, which denotes the capacity to be able to readily communicate in language the intense feelings thus conjured. A poet for Wordsworth hence is just someone who is different from others in degree, not in kind. An important corollary to the idea of a poet evinced by Wordsworth, is the question as to what is the function a person considered as such is expected to perform. The answer is to offer instant delight, which is to say, make the poem relevant to all by facilitating an essential understanding of human nature. This way, as the knowledge of human nature is something that is implicitly present in one and all, the poem would be readily comprehendible, unlike a scientific treatise, an astrologer’s chart, a legal document, all of which require special skills to fathom.
 
Poetic Medium
 
    According to Wordsworth, the proper medium for writing poetry is the language really spoken by rustic people in their everyday interactions. In making this postulation however, Wordsworth insists on one particular stipulation, that it is not used in its pristine form, but only after being refined of its apparent crudities. The main reason behind Wordsworth’s recommendation regarding the proper style in poetry, is that the language of rustic people is relatively natural, and therefore more directly reflects what an individual feels. This of course is owing to the fact that in rustic setting, people lead a comparatively simpler life, which is for the most part devoid of the imperative to keep up social appearances. Hence the language in which they apparently converse is also correspondingly free of stereotypical phrases and worn out idioms that constitute a staple part of interactions in a city context. This said however it must be also insisted that the postulation made by Wordsworth regarding the proper language to be employed in poetry, logically keeps in line with his proposition regarding what ought to be its proper subject. After all, considering the fact that events from rustic life is designated by Wordsworth as the legitimate theme of poetry, it is only rational that the language used by the people in such a setting is utilized as the medium for depicting those events.
 
Poetic Diction
 
    All the four aspects discussed above, as one might plainly notice, are consciously proposed by Wordsworth as a reaction to the salient features that inform neoclassical poetry. For instance, in Wordsworth’s point of view, poetry typifies an expressive entity that manifests the feelings or sentiments that arise in the poet’s heart, while for the neoclassicists, poetry denoted a rational entity that embodies a critical perspective on things. Similarly, for Wordsworth, the proper subject for poetry are events taken from rustic life, on the contrary in neoclassical poetry, it is ridiculing social or individual vices that one essentially comes across in the city context. Furthermore, a poet for Wordsworth is no different, that is, neither superior nor inferior to any other person, while the neoclassicists regard a poet as personifying a person of genius, who is a cut above the rest. Finally, in Wordsworth’s view, the plain language spoken by rustic people would suffice as a proper medium for writing poetry, while in the opinion of the neoclassicists, the poetic language must be self-consciously lofty. Of the four aspects, it must be pointed out that the last represents the principle point of contention for Wordsworth. This of course should not be taken to mean that the other three are relatively less important, but it is just that Wordsworth takes particular offense to the notion of poetic diction implied in the neoclassicist’s conception regarding the proper style in poetry. Poetic diction refers to a distinct selection of words or language, which is allegedly meant to be utilized for the exclusive purpose of writing poetry. Needless to say, Wordsworth is staunchly opposed to the very idea, insisting that such a notion is not merely flawed but impractical in scope. In his perspective, the language of poetry is essentially the same as that of prose. However, it must be clarified here that Wordsworth does make a stipulation that though essentially similar, the language of prose and poetry are not exactly alike. This stipulation nevertheless does not undermine Wordsworth’s original stance, for the disparity he speculates between poetic and prose style essentially comes down to the aspect of metre. This is to say, the difference between the medium of poetry and that of prose lies in the fact that the former is foregrounded with metre, while the latter is not. However, as metre is fundamentally determined by the order in which the words are organized in a poem, and not the actual choice of the words, the addition of it in poetry does not in any way make its language different in kind to that of a prose piece.
 
The Appendix
 
The appendix that was affixed to the Preface during the third edition of Lyrical Ballads, is essentially meant by Wordsworth to provide an explanation of what he means by the phrase poetic diction. He does this by giving us an account of how the notion possibly originated and evolved over the years into eventually becoming such a pervasive phenomenon in the domain of poetry. His theory in this regard may be set forth as follows. Wordsworth posits that when poets originally began writing poetry, their sensibilities were animated by intense passions and feelings. In an attempt to do justice to this high intensity of emotions they felt, they deliberately employed a self-consciously lofty and figurative style in writing their poetry. In the subsequent generations, the poets who succeeded them also followed suit by imitating their lofty style, but without actually experiencing the high intensity of passion the original poets felt. Consequently, the lofty figurative style that the successive poets used in their poetry, became more a mechanical reproduction rather than being a genuine expression of their real emotional state. This apparent gap between the intensity of the sentiments actually felt, and the loftiness of the language employed, became more telling with every passing generation. The end result is that an intentionally beautified style embellished with all kinds of figures and decorative phrases, but devoid of authentic inspiration, emerged as the characteristic language to be adopted in the writing of poetry. Wordsworth’s opposition to poetic diction is thus essentially grounded on the fact that it typifies both an artificial and a shallow medium. It is with the professed aim of countering its influence that he prescribes the language of rustic people, which he looks upon as far more genuine and natural, as the legitimate medium for versification.