3.0 Objectives
3.1. Introduction
3.1.1. The Romantic Revival
3.1.2. Impact of French Revolution
Self Check Questions for 3.1.1. and 3.1.2.
3.2.1 The Genesis of Preface
3.2.2 Aims of the Preface
3.2.3 Definition of Poetry
Self Check Questions for 3.2.1., 3.2.2., 3.2.3.
3.2.4 Concept of Imagination
3.2.5 Themes and Subject Matter of Poetry
3.2.6 Function of Poetry
3.2.7 Diction of Poetry
Self Check Questions for 3.2.4., 3.2.5., 3.2.6., 3.2.7.
3.3 Summing up
3.4 Reading List
M.H.Abrams once said, “The first critic of Wordsworth’s poetry is Wordsworth himself.” Wordsworth’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads,which expresses the spirit of Romanticism in his words, is a critical document that puts stress on the relationship between poet and poetry rather than on the relationship between poetry and reader. He defines poetry in terms of the author’s creative activity. So, he discusses the idea of poetry after discussing the idea of poet. For him, a poet is affected more than others by imagining things not immediately present to his perceptions. The definition given by Wordsworth refers to this process of poetic composition emphasizing the roles played by memory and contemplation. Wordsworth, while defining poetry, goes beyond the Aristotelian concept of poetry as an imitation of an action. The Preface also contains his views on poetic diction. He attacks the hackneyed verbal conventions of eighteenth century poetry and opines that the conversational language should be used to compose poems.It would not be wrong to say that Wordsworth contradicts himself because at the stage of contemplation a poet chooses words very carefully, therefore it is not possible to use the language “really used by men.” In spite of such criticism, the ‘Preface’ remains one of the most significant critical documents in the history of English Criticism. It has been a source from which the next generation critics have derived ideas and exploited them to the fullest.