I'm writing this blog as an assignment by the Department of English, MKBU. This is about wordsworth's preface.
Wordsworth's Preface
1)What is the basic difference between the poetic creed of 'Classicism' and 'Romanticism'?
Classicism and Romanticism are literary movements. The term Classicism refers to the admiration and imitation of Greek and Roman literature, art, and architecture. Order, maturity, harmony, balance and moderation are important qualities of Classicism. Romanticism might best be described as anti-Classicism. This movement stressed human emotion and thoughts and emphasized the individual, the imaginative, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. Popular romantic authors include people like Burke, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Byron, Gordon, Burns, Southey, Cowper, Shelley, Scott, Goethe, Lamb, De Quincey, Carlyle, Bronte sisters and Jane Austen.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM
Toward the end of the eighteenth-century, Romanticism emerged as a response to Classicism. While the Classicists thought of the world as having a rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and beliefs. Classicists and Romanticists differed in their views of nature. Classicism was based on the idea that nature and human nature could be understood by reason and thought. On the other hand, Romanticists viewed nature as mysterious and ever changing.
Classicist and Romanticists also differed on their approaches towards reason and imagination. Classicism attached much more importance to reason than imagination because imagination could not be explained by their laws. The Romanticists, however, emphasized that reason was not the only path to truth. To the Romantic writers, imagination was ultimately superior to reason. Classicists thought that it was literature’s function to show the everyday values of humanity and the laws of human existence. The Romantics stressed the human potential for social progress and spiritual growth.
To conclude, we can say that both the movements played significant role in the development of literature. The classicism showed its strong effect in the field of writing in the Augustan period. This ideal was followed by Dryden, Pope, Johnson and Swift. The term Romantic as a designation for a school of literature opposed to the Classic was first used by the German critic Schlegel at the beginning of the 19th century. From Germany, this meaning was carried to England and France. Wordsworth and other literary figures of the 19th century strengthened Romanticism in England.
2)Why does Wordsworth say 'what' is poet rather than 'who' is poet?
According to Wordsworth, "A poet is a man speaking to men, endowed with more lively sensibility" and he also say that the poet is such a human being who is overall in degree a far better human being than ordinary human being.
In other words:
• He has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than one supposed to be common among mankind.
• He is a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the going-on of the universe, and habitually compelled to create them where he does not find them.
• Man speaking to men.
• More lively sensibility.
• Greater imagination.
• Greater zest for life.
•Greater power of expression and communication.
3)What is poetic diction? Which sort of poetic diction is suggested by wordsworth in his preface?
William Wordsworth, a poet of the romantic age has a unique type of diction with major distinct features as compared to his contemporaries. As he was a revolutionary poet the style, diction, themes, the subject matter was totally different from the previous writers.
Wordsworth’s Poetic Diction theory is a revolution against neoclassical diction. His revolt against pseudo-classical diction is based on finding suitable language, a language that totally has a new style and form.
He wants to write poetry that can be understandable to all. By all, I mean, those who are illiterate but can taste the essence of poetry. His aim was to produce literature that has essence and joy, but the primary priority was on the simplest diction. The preface to the lyrical ballad is a masterpiece of work from which we will analyze Words Worth’s Poetic Diction in detail. In the theory of poetic diction he explains in detail his aim of poetic diction;
Simple language
Low and rustic life
Common man
Nature
Emotions
4) What is poetry?
As 'Poetry' is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity". In this definition of poetry there are two apparent contradictions. The “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” and “emotion reflected in tranquillity” on the other side are apparently two contradictory statements.
Wordsworth uses his poetry to look at the relationship between nature and human life. For him poetry is the talk of man to man and it should be in simple language. His experience and attitude are reflected not only in his poetry, but also in letters and prose work. Wordsworth’s poetry remained consistent throughout. Even the language and imagery he used to embody those themes remained remarkably consistent. They remained consistent to the canons Wordsworth had set out the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.
According to Wordsworth, 'poetry' 'is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science'. Poetry seeks to ennoble and edify. It is like morning star which throws its radiance through the gloom and darkness of life.
'Poetry' is the instrument for the propagation of moral thoughts.
‘Poetry sheds no tears, such as angels weep, but natural and human tears’.
Wordsworth's opinion on poetry is that “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Poetry has its origin in the internal feelings of the poet. It is a matter of passion, mood and temperament. Poetry cannot be produced by strictly adhering to the rules laid down by the Classicists. It must flow out naturally and smoothly from the soul of the poet. But it must be noted that good poetry, according to Wordsworth, is never an immediate expression of such powerful emotions. A good poet must ponder over them long and deeply. In the words of Wordsworth, “poetry has its origin in emotions recollected in tranquility.”
5) Discuss 'Daffodils - I wandered lonely as a cloud' with reference to Wordsworth's poetic creed.
William Wordsworth’s literary classic, ‘Daffodils,’ also known as ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,’ is one of the most popular poems in the English language. This poem features how the spontaneous emotions of the poet’s heart sparked by the energetic dance of daffodils help him pen down this sweet little piece. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a host of daffodils around Glencoyne Bay in the Lake District. This event was the inspiration behind the composition of Wordsworth’s lyric poem.
‘Daffodils’ or ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ has been dissected methodically for illustrating the poet’s mood, the surrounding location, the allegorical meanings, and the beauty of nature in full motion. The poet’s love and proximity with nature have inspired and moved generations after generations of poetry lovers and young minds.
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