Lecture Literary criticism - Lecture 15: Wordswoth as a romantic critic

Wordsworth was the first to give a new turn to discussion as the nature of poetry by connecting it with feeling and making it dependent upon imagination. His views on language and poetic diction are even more strikingly original.They were so original,indeed that they provoked much criticism when they were first produced.

WORDSWOTH AS A ROMANTIC CRITIC

• Wordsworth was the first to give a new turn to discussion as the nature of poetry by

connecting it with feeling and making it

dependent upon imagination

• His views on language and poetic diction are even more strikingly original.They were so

original,indeed that they provoked much

criticism when they were first produced

• Wordsworth tries to bridge the gulf between prose

and verse.

• Later Wordsworth pleads that prose and metrical

compositions make use of the same material,namely words and phrases and speak to a same sense.

• Meter adds no novel distinction to the language such

a distinction emanates only from passionate use of language and is thus generic not specific.

• Words of prose and poetry are not clearly

demarcated so the words which can be used in prose can find place in poetry and vice versa.

• Wordsworth makes it clear that the use

of meter in poetry is different from the use of poetic diction.

• Meter obeys certain rules where as

poetic diction is arbitrary and

capricious.

• In the preface,Wordsworth has

defended meter on the grounds.

• (i)It adds charm and pleasure to the language.

• (ii)Poems written upon humble

subjects and in a more naked and simple language than the poets

own compositions have continued

to give pleasure from generation to generation.

• (iii) The end of poetry is to produce excitement.In the statement of

excitement ideas and feelings do not follow each other in the

accustomed order.Meter retrains

and tempers the eciteest.

• (iv)Pathetic and painful situation can b rendered more effectively in rhyme than

in prose.

• (v)It imparts a dream like quality to the poem because of which the pain seems remote and more endurable.

• (vi)It imparts passion to the words and makes the reader experience

appropriate feelings of pleasure.

• (vii) We derive pleasure from perception

of similarity in dissimilarity.The use of

meter provides the element of contrast.

PREFACE TO THE LYRICAL

BALLADE

• Wordsworth wrote the preface with a view to provide a kind of introduction to his poems

which was considered by him to be new both

in theme and style

• He didn’t want to present his poems to the

public without telling them as to why he didn’t follow the conventional style and theme of

neo-classical poetry

• The preface explains the way in which his poems differ from the popular

tradition of the age”Every new and

original poet has to create the taste by which he is read and enjoyed and the creation of such a taste was

Wordworth’s basic objective in writing the preface”.

• In his preface he demolishes the

neo-classical poetry,and present his own theory of poetry that his poems are read and

appreciated.In the preface,Wordsworth

discusses the nature and function of poetry and poetic process the qualification of a poet and the poetic truth

• He regards poetry superior to philosophical history and science.In a way the preface is a landmark in the history of literary criticism

• The preface to the Lyrical Ballad was perhaps more remarkable than the poems themselves for in the preface the theory of new poetry of the romantic age was laid down with great

deal leaving no scope for ambiguity and

doubt

• It was in the preface that Wordsworth made bold and categorical statements regarding the nature of poetry and function of criticism and the ole of the poet as a creative artist

• This preface is one of the master pieces of English criticism it is intelligent subtle yet extremely clear and provocative.

• The preface makes us understand the subject matter

of poetry is whatever interest.The human mind(that is

if a thing is interesting,it doesn’t mean at all to say

that this undignified or unpoetic.

• The Lyrical Ballad were written as experiments to try out the use of language.

• Conversation of real people is poetry.

• They are new and unusual and will not suit the taste

of most readers,Nevertheless,the reader is asked to try them with an open mind and not to be putt off at first sight without giving them a fair trial.

• In the preface to the lyrical ballade

Wordsworth says that he has used language and situations from “low and rustic” life

because in low and rustic life man is more

simple ,more direct and nearer to his

elemental passions and less affected and

artificial in the way he expresses his

the dignified or the sensational but with the

permanent interest of human heart

• Wordsworth says that “poetry is the breath

and finer spirit of all knowledge”and that

“poetry is the spontaneous overflow of

powerful feelings”taking its origin from

emotions collected in tranquility”

• The qualification of the poets are laid down in conformity with the dignity of his art

• To Wordsworth a poet is who”possessed of more than usual organic sensibility”and one who has also “thought long and deeply”

• The first preface to Lyrical Ballad was published in 1800.It was revised and enlarged for the 1802 edition

of the lyrical Ballade.In the preface of 1802 edition

Wordsworth added a long account of the nature and function of poet.He answered this question in his own characteristic manner as to what is a poet?

• He declared poet superior to the man of science and analyzed the nature of poetic pleasure.To this edition Wordsworth also added an appendix on Poetic

diction.

• Wordsworth continued revising and perfecting the

preface in each subsequent edition.

• In the edition of 1815 this preface appeared as

Appendix and the volume was provided with an

entirely new preface.to this volume Wordsworth also added an essay supplementary to the preface.

• The preface that we study today is that of 1802.

• Wordsworth says in the preface that although the poet feels for the man and about man and

he should write in a way that is understood by men

• The poet also possesses powers of

communication,memory and passion

• In the preface he makes an attempt to define what makes a poet write poetry

• Some of his remarks such as “emotions

recollected in tranquility” and “spontaneous overflow of emotions” are deservedly famous

• He is one of the first writers who alter to

describe the inner creative process.Perhaps his best and clearest definition of a poet is of

the man “who being possessed by more

than usual organic sensibility has also

thought long and deeply”

• A good poet is not first of all a thinker and a philosopher not is first of all a sensitive soul putting forth his own passions.He must write the two qualities of thought and feelings.He is different from the other men not in kid but in degree of his qualities,which make him write that which others feel but cannot express

• In the preface Wordsworth covers an

enormous stretch of ground,throwing

out quite effortlessly the most acute

observations on the relationship of

poetry and science on the use of

metre ,at the place of pleasure in art

and as the history of poetry.

• It raises almost every knotty aesthetic problem one can think of and deals with them with an amazing confidence and energy after reading it.

• Wordsworth at least had thought long and deep and “indolence” is the least thing he

could be accused of

• It is a pleasure to read someone who is sure

of his own mind and at the same time has nothing dry and opined about him

• This preface leaves a final impression of a quite extraordinary combination of creative and critical power of passion and thought

• It marks the beginning of a new age

• Wordsworth sought to bring about a distinct change from the practice of the preceding

generations

• He doesn’t recognize any unbridgeable gulf between science and poetry.He disproves the idea that with the advancement of science

poetry declines

• On the other hand he is of the view that with the advancement of science poetry becomes familiar with the scientific principles and

scientific phraseology and adjusts itself to the new idioms for expressing new thoughts.He has a liberal attitude towards science and that

is appreciable

• Wordsworth has mentioned the idea of

imitation in the preface(1800) and it is

appropriately indicated how poetry is

distinguished from history deals in

generations,

• Wordsworth subscribes to the view that to the poet the particular is nothing and universal is everything

• As regards the end of poetry,Wordsworth

make a departure from Aristotle.For Aristotle plot is the primary thing.The idea of delight as the end of poetry is neither explicitly nor

elaborately mentioned.On the other hand

Wordsworth emphasizes pleasure to be the end of poetry

WORDSWORTH’S THEORY OF POETRY

• Wordsworth has described the theory of poetry and his conception of the

function of a poet.In his theory of poetry

he set down the origin,nature and

purpose of poetry and the function of

the poet in a civil society.

• Wordsworth defines poetry as the

spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,it takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility,the emotion is contemplated till the tranquility disappears and an emotion

kindered to that which was before the subject

of contemplation is gradually produced and does itself actually exist in mind

• The clear spring of poetry must flow

spontaneous and freely it cannot be

made to flow through artificially laid

pipes.Poetry is born not in the mind,but

in the heart overflowing with

feeling.Poetry is produced by a man

who being possessed of more than

organic sensibility had also thought long and deep.

• Wordsworth was dissatisfied with

the 18th century poetry.He was not happy with the contemporary

poetry for a number of reasons and composed poems which differ from the neo-classical poetry both in

matter and manners.In the content

as well as in their style.

• Wordsworth felt a regret that some of his

contemporaries have introduced trivialities

and meanness of thought and language in

their metrical composition But Wordsworth

poems differs from those of his

contemporaries of that of enlightening the

readers and purifying their affections

• He castigates poets who separate

themselves from sympathies of men and who indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression in order to furnish food to fickle

taste and fickle appetites of their own

creations