19 pages • 38 minutes read
William WordsworthPreface to Lyrical Ballads
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1800A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Democratic Ideals of the Romantic Movement
Typifying the ideals of the Romantic movement, Wordsworth argues that poetry should be understood by the common person and should use everyday language. This is in contrast to the poetic style cultivated by 18th-century classicist poets like Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray, which strove for loftiness of effect and often employed a special “poetic” vocabulary not used in ordinary conversation. Further, Wordsworth argues in favor of choosing as the subjects of poetry “incidents and situations from common life” (2). His rationale is that poetry expresses human emotions—unlike science, which seeks a more abstract and impersonal truth—and thus should remain close to human feelings, concerns, and modes of expression.
Wordsworth’s emphasis on bringing poetry to the level of the common person reflects the democratic ideals of the Romantic movement, inspired in part by the American and French Revolutions. Romanticist artists advocated the idea that art should appeal to the many instead of being the province of an intellectual or aristocratic elite—who were the traditional patrons of art from the Renaissance through the 18th century. Not only were common people the proper audience for poetry, but they could also be a worthy subject for poetry because they lived (in many cases) close to nature and because they expressed strong emotions in an unaffected way. This being the case, the subject matter and style of expression of poetry should be close to nature and to everyday life, avoiding the artificial and ornate.
Modern Civilization and Its Aversion to Poetry
Wordsworth introduces a note of social criticism toward the middle of the essay. He states that part of his intention for his poems is to counteract social trends which have resulted from urban life, industrialization, and “great national events” (5). The Industrial Revolution, which included the advent of mechanized industry and mass production, had begun in the 1760s and was in full force by 1800 when the “Preface” was written. Wordsworth argues that the mass migration of people to cities (where they supplied the workforce for the new factories) leads to a uniform lifestyle and a general boredom that creates a “craving for extraordinary incident” (5).
When people’s mental faculties are dulled, they are no longer able to distinguish good from poor literature, and they turn to cheap novels and plays that provide an immediate thrill. This desire for sensationalism is increased by the quickness and ease of communication, which makes people expect exciting events on an hourly basis.
All this means that modern civilization is becoming averse to good poetry that embodies deep reflection and emotion. Fashionable novels are crowding out “the invaluable works of our elder writers” (5) and classics by Shakespeare and Milton. Wordsworth believes that the problem is so great that his own attempt to counteract it by writing thoughtful and reflective poems is only a “feeble endeavour.” He is confident, however, that the human mind has the strength to overcome these influences, and that more poets will join him in combating the evil.
Art and Science: Expressing Truth in Complementary Ways
Wordsworth argues that it is poetry’s duty to express truth, “the image of things” (10), as conveyed to the heart through emotion. The poet must find language perfectly fitted for the emotion they want to express, thus conveying the truth of the emotion. They must, however, always express truth in a way that brings pleasure.
This pleasure is an expression of the beauty of the world around us. Wordsworth argues that pleasure lies at the root of the search for knowledge. While the poet searches for emotional truth, the scientist searches for rational truth. Both the poet and the scientist examine nature, and both are motivated by the pleasure they take in their research. The main difference is that while the knowledge the poet seeks is familiar to our daily lives, the knowledge of the scientist is more difficult to come by and is more remote to our experiences. While the scientist’s knowledge is exclusive to them and understood mainly by other scientists, the poet’s knowledge can be understood by all human beings.
While making this distinction between poetry and science, Wordsworth goes on to argue that the two disciplines affect and penetrate each other. The sense of wonder that the scientist feels in the face of nature is an inherently poetic feeling. Wordsworth speculates that as science advances, the poet will look to it for the subjects for their poetry. Poetry may help convey the truths of science to humankind in a pleasurable and humane form.
Wordsworth’s discussion of poetry and science is noteworthy in that he considers both to be forms of knowledge, involving study and a faithfulness to objective truth. Wordsworth considers science and poetry to be united in a similar goal and in no way opposed to each other.
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By William Wordsworth
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