Key parts of the Romantic Movement were the use of imagination and simplicity in the messages and subjects of the writings. William Wordsworth, much like William Blake and his fellow Romantic poets, wrote about everyday life in pastoral settings. In the Preface for his collection of poems in Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth writes that “[t]he principal object…was to chuse incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language that was used by man” (206). Wordsworth wanted his writings to be accessible by the common man, and he wanted to write what he felt they could relate to. By bringing “a certain colouring of imagination” into his writings he could bring the reader to a new height and also make these ordinary incidents seem more fanciful and interesting (206). That is all nice and dandy, but why does he write about these common incidents? What was so important about them that he needed to be able to tell his readers about them but with more imagination?
Wordsworth does not make his reader wait at all when it comes to answering these questions. “[A]ll good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” says Wordsworth in the next part of his Preface (207). Therefore, he may not care what his reader thinks of his poetry because it was not written to be received by anyone. It was a spark of imagination that hit him and led him to write these poems. These poems do not go without purpose either, that is “to illustrate the manner in which our feelings and ideas are associated in a state of excitement” (207). How amazing is that? Wordsworth obviously takes great care in what he is writing and who he is writing to. Of the authors we have read so far, I think Wordsworth is the one that cares the most about his readers. His poetry explores more than just common events in everyday life. His poems serve as bridges between our minds and our eyes, our motives and the hands that carry them out, and our imagination and the world among other things. Wordsworth’s words are more powerful than we may initially read. He makes his poems very real and close to home for the readers of his time, yet he complicates them with ideas and imagination in order to draw the gap between what we see and how we feel closer and closer (208).
To Wordsworth, a poet is “a man speaking to men” (210). Although that may sound simple, it is true. Wordsworth, especially, is speaking to men about their lives and in terms they can understand. His poems conjure images and ideas that are not foreign to anyone that also show the simplicity of nature while adding layers of language to incorporate his ideas and bring his true purpose to light. Wordsworth is a powerful wordsmith who uses words that any man would use in order to generate emotions from his readers about simple subjects.
2 comments:
Corbin,
Good focus on the particularly rich and important text of Wordsworth's "Preface" to his Lyrical Ballads. You select several key passages for consideration in this post. I am a little confused by the logical flow of your post, though. You start by considering Wordsworth's focus on everyday objects, and ask, understandably, why he writes about common incidents. You then, however, quote him talking about the nature of poetry, and feelings; there is not a logical connection apparent to me in this transition on in this use of the quotation.
I was trying to say that it didn't matter what he wrote about, it was the feeling behind it and the fact that he was writing. I felt that there was no specific reason why he wrote about these common incidents. What was important was how he got to writing them. He felt the initial emotion and then went on a role. Then I went on to explain that his poetry serves as a bridge between these seemingly common things and the power of imagination and language. It seemed important to me to write about what he felt the nature of poetry was because that is why he was writing about these common incidents in the first place. I guess I was not able to transition the paragraphs smoothly though...
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