This presentation is a part of my academic presentation Literary Theory & Criticism Department of English M.k. Bhavnagar University and it is submitted to Pro. Dr. Dilip Barad.

1. Wordsworth view on Theme and
Subject matter of poetry
 Name: Raval Mital M.
 Roll no: 26
 Year: 2016 – 2018
 M.A. Sem: 1
 Enrolment no: 2069108429170026
 Paper no: (3) Literary Theory & Criticism 1
 Presentation topic: Wordsworth view on theme
and
 subject matter of poetry
 Submited to: Dr. Dilip Barad
Smt. S.B. Gardi
Department of English
M.K.Bhavnagar University

2. Introduction
• Wordsworth’s poetic creed initiated
the Romantic era by emphasizing
feeling, instinct, and pleasure above
formality and mannerism.
 Wordsworth gave expression to
inchoate human emotion.
 He instead championed more
democratic themes- the lives of
ordinary men and women, farmers,
paupers, and the rural poor.

3. Definition of poetry
 Poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings: it
takes its origin form emotion
recollected in tranquility.
 When the poet is in the poetic
mood he sings out rapture as
sorrow spontaneously form the
core of his heart.
 Poetry cannot be composed
under duress, the clear spring of
poetry must flow freely and
spontaneously.
 it cannot be made to flow through
artificially .

4. Theme of poetry
Theme
of the
poem
Nature
Rustic
life
Childhood
as a
theme
Power of
human
mind

5. Theme of nature
 Nature provides the ultimate good influence on the
human mind
 The good relationship with nature helps individuals
connect to both the spiritual and the social worlds.
For example
“ One summer evening l found
A little boat tied to a willow tree
Within a rocky cove, its usual home”
[ The Prelude]

6. Childhood as a theme
 In Wordsworth’s poetry, Childhood is
magical, magnificent time of innocence.
 Children from an intense bond with
nature, so much so that they appear to
be a part of the natural world, rather than
a part of human, social world.
 Fore example
“She dwelt among the untrodden ways”
“Strange fits of passion have I known”

7. The power of human mind
 Wordsworth praised the power of the
human mind.
 For example
“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above
Tintern Abbey”

8. Rustic life
 Wordsworth always use simply and rustic
life in his poem.
 The live of ordinary men and women,
farmer’ rural poor.
 Fore example
“ Solitary Reaper”

9. Subject matter of poetry
Subject
matter of
poetry
Object
Humble and
rustic life
Language

10. Object
 To choose incidents and situations from
common life.
 A selection of language really used by
men
 To throw a Certain colouring of
imagination whereby ordinary things
should presented to the mind in an
unusual aspect.
 To make these incidents and situations
interesting by tracing in them the primary

11. Humble and rustic life
• Humble and rustic life was generally
chosen, because in that condition, the
essential passions of the heart find a batter
soil.
• In which they can attain their maturity, are
less under restraint and speak a plainer
and more emphatic language; because in
that condition of life, our elementary
feelings co-exist in a state of greater

12.  Men communicate with the best objects from
which the best part of language is originally
derived.
 Through the language people convey their
feelings and notions in simple unelaborated
expressions.
 Such a language, arising out of the repeated
experience and regular feelings is a more
permanent, and a far more philosophical
language.
Language

13. The function of poetry
• 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 is the instrument for the
propagation of moral thoughts.
• Wordsworth’s poetry does not simply
delight us, but it also teaches us deep
moral lessons and brings home to us
deep philosophical truths about life and
religion.

14. Conclusion
 Wordsworth’s view on poetical style are
the most revolutionary of all the idea in
his preface.
 He insists that his poems are written in
‘selection of language of men in a state
of vivid sensation’.
 His view’s of poetic diction can be
summed up as: ‘there neither is nor can
be any essential difference between the
language of prose and metrical
composition.