Wordsworth

1
Wordsworths theory of poetry

• Described in the Preface to the second edition
  of Lyrical Ballads, published in 1800

2

• Poetry is the spontaneous overlow of powerful
  feelings. . .recollected in tranquility
• It is concerned with the emotions of the
  individual poet as opposed to being concerned
  with great events in human history
• Although nature is a persistent subject, the real
  subject of the poetry is the thoughts and
  feelings of the poet

3

• The principle object, then, which I proposed to
  myself in these poems was to choose incidents and
  situations from common life, and to relate or
  describe them, throughout, as far as was
  possible, in the selection of language really
  used by men.
• Low and rustic life was generally chosen

4

• The aim of this poetry is to refresh our sense of
  wonder in the every day, the trivial, the
  familiar
• The purpose of poetry is to throw over
  situations from common life a certain coloring
  of imagination, whereby ordinary hings should eb
  presented to the mind in an unusual way
• Sometimes it achieves a sense of wonder through
  the use of the supernatural or altered states of
  consciousness