The new poetic ideas and directions that Wordsworth proposed in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, stemmed from his first off defining what exactly a poet is. A poet, in Wordsworth’s estimation was someone who, “…is a man speaking to men…(who’s) pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him.” A poet is a man who writes in the mindset of constant pleasure, because if he did not do so he would have a condemnatory view on life. Wordsworth believed that poetry, unlike other job occupations, was simply the recording of life, with passionate realistic observation applied to the process. In order to do this, several criteria had to be administered in the poet’s writing.
One of the criteria that Wordsworth believed the poet should uphold is that they should only write about situations from common life, opposed to situations dealing with nobility or the upper class. Also, the poet should write in the same language as common man. The reason why Wordsworth felt that the poet should primarily concentrate on the common man was because he felt that the common man spoke in a, “…plainer and more emphatic language,” and that that form of language is the true exemplar of passion. That form of language contained “greater simplicity,” which consequently resulted in “more accurately contemplated” thought on the part of the common man and on the part of the poet. The common man, “more forcibly communicated” their thoughts, opposed to the upper class that used their fancy gussied up language as a barrier from passion; these flawed men were typically the men of the urban sensibility. They were, “…men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident.” Wordsworth’s point was that beauty is all around us, and we don’t have to strive to find it. If we as a society build structures in order to enhance the beauty of nature, we consequently become depressed and sluggish. These urban men in a sense, without realizing it, are putting down life by trying to enhance it.
The great attribute of the common man is that, “…in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature,” consequently resulting in, “…the primary laws of our nature.” Wordsworth felt that poetry written in the tone of the common man was the most philosophic language imaginable. Philosophy really, in Wordsworth’s estimation and I agree with him, is the discovery of what gives us as a society pleasure; the discovery of why we do the things that we do. Wordsworth’s discovery in poetry, the most philosophic form of language, is that poetry matters; that it has a great impact on society because it excites us to discover the beauties in ourselves. This should be done away from, “…the influence of social vanity,” where the vain believe that art is simply a negligent form of entertainment. That art is “deep” and technically sound without any purpose.
Purpose is the key in Wordsworth’s opinion for the poet to write good poetry. He believed that without good poetry, gross superficial art would have a pernicious negative impact on society. If the artwork itself is superficially negative, if it’s “deep” art, and if artwork itself is indeed a reflection of reality, then the purveyor of that work will have a negative view on life. Hence, the need to show the pleasures in life, which is a more realistic point of view anyway. Wordsworth felt that, “…All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;” feelings that would in the end hopefully give the reader a “strengthened and purified” feeling about themselves and about life. This prime fact concerning poetry can never be forgotten in Wordsworth’s estimation, and yet he’s worried throughout this essay that it will be.
In order for a writer to have purpose in their writing, the poet must give, “…importance to the action and situation, and not the action and situation to the feeling.” In other words, the poet must not let technical competence trump the subject matter or the prose. Now, this doesn’t mean that there should be a separation of prose from metrical composition, but rather that, “…the poet’s words should (never) be incommensurate with the passion,” or the reality of the situation that the poet is writing about. Wordsworth describes the complexity in common speech and in good poetry as, “similitude in dissimilitude.” Dissimilitude is meter while similitude is prose.
There are many revolutionary concepts in this essay. One of them, which relates to the notion of there being complexity in supposed simplicity, is that, “the human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity.” The key word in that sentence is faint. The person writing or reading the poetry doesn’t have to be a cultural savant or anything. Really, the parameters for good sound poetry are very simple in Wordsworth’s opinion. People who make art out to be something “complex” that only a few very gifted people can appreciate are in themselves simple.
Wordsworth’s poetry exemplifies his feelings in Preface to Lyrical Ballads. One key poem that shows his beliefs in what a poem should do is entitled Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. Lines is an example of how Wordsworth believed that good poetry is philosophic in nature, and that, “…poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” (It makes sense that there’s a contradiction in that sentence. Wordsworth’s essay deals constantly in contradiction: similitude in dissimilitude, and prose and metrical composition all being prime ideas in Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In Wordsworth’s estimation, contradictions lead to complexity.) That is the prime basis for Lines; in the poem Wordsworth is recollecting on happier times while strolling through his favorite spot of nature. This area keeps his mind occupied away from decaying society; the same idle vain society that believes in superficial art that Wordsworth presumably writes about in his essay. The place is an affirmation of life, and so is the poem. These qualities suffice Wordsworth by the end of the poem with feelings of strength and purity, which are qualities that Wordsworth says all of society should possess in Preface to Lyrical Ballads.
Another revolutionary concept on Wordsworth’s part, which relates with representing reality in an accurate way, is that the poet should basically keep himself out of what he is writing about; he shouldn’t intrude upon the subject matter with fancy structurally sound style, which is simply an indication of the poet’s personality; of his trying to show off. It’s a disservice to the poet’s subject matter. Consequently, personification was left out of Wordsworth’s writing, as well as “poetic diction,” and general terms or phrases and figures of speech that made up the, “…common inheritance of poets.” If one adds copious amounts of style and shoves them in the crevices of reality, basically the statement that emanates from that work of art is that life is dull. Life needs adding onto. Good poetry has nothing to do with specialized notions of “good artistic sense.” As if artistic meant that you the writer were more important than the subject you were writing about. The writer is simply a translator; he cannot add onto life because life is all-encompassing.
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