Preface to the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is a critical document of abiding historical significance. It marks an epoch in the history of English literary criticism. It is a great dividing line; it ends an era and marks the beginning of a new one. It is a great wall standing between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was a revolt against the neo-classic trend of the poetry of the Augustan period.

The Preface has been called ‘the manifesto of the English romantic movement’, and we shall soon see that this claim is justified. The following comparative study proves that the Preface works as a manifesto of the romantic movement.

👉In the Preface, Wordsworth, for the first time departs from the traditional view of poetry as imitation and holds out the romantic view that poetry is not imitation, but self-expression. It is the expression of the poet's own emotions and passions and not merely an imitation of external nature.

👉The Preface is seen to be a forceful plea for simplicity both in theme and diction. Wordsworth's preference for incidents and situations taken from humble and common life is quite in accord with the romantic glorification of the savage. He proposes to pick up ‘materials from common life’ in ‘a selection of language really used by men.’

👉Wordsworth emphasizes the role of imagination in the process of poetic creation. He exalts imagination over reason. Themes taken from common can be made interesting by throwing over them a colour of imagination. It is imagination which transforms and transfigures and makes the common look uncommon. It is through imagination that a poet can see into ‘the heart of things’ and realise truths which remain beyond the meddling intellect of the scientist.

👉He takes a typically romantic view when he speaks of poetry as, ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ He thus emphasizes the emotional and imaginative content of poetry.

👉Wordsworth departs from Neo-classical tradition and becomes the first romantic critic who gives an account of the process of poetic creation. The neo-classic criticism was concerned largely with poetic genres, and no attempt was made to build up a theory of poetry. It was left for the romantics to do so, and Wordsworth takes the first step in this regard.

👉He is romantic also in the sense that he gives emphasis on the individualism of the poet Romanticism is defined as ‘liberalism in literature’, and Wordsworth gives his opinion in favour of this very liberalism when he upholds the independence of the poet. According to Wordsworth, a poet is a man who is ‘pleased with his own passions and volitions’ and ‘his own feelings are his stay and support’.

👉Again, Wordsworth is romantic when he says that a poet is a man who has greater ‘enthusiasm’ than the common man. This ‘enthusiasm’ is the poetic frenzy which figures so much in romantic critical theories.

👉Wordsworth is also romantic in his condemnation of the poetic diction of the Pseudo-classics. Stressing on the liberty of style, he says, ‘there neither is nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.’

After Wordsworth, the tradition of criticism approves the use of any language in literature which will serve the writer's turn. In this respect, Wordsworth cleared the way for the romantic and all subsequent movements towards liberty of style.

9. Again Wordsworth is a romantic in his plea to his readers that they should judge his poems themselves; they should trust to their own feelings, and not be carried away by the judgement of others.
Thus, we may conclude that Wordsworth is certainly romantic in the spirit of his criticism. His Preface occupies a transitional place in the history of literary criticism. it demolishes the old and paves the ay for the new. It is an epoch-making document in more ways than one.