Lyrical Ballads, a collaborative collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, marked the beginning of the Romantic age and emphasized imagination over the realism of the Neoclassical era. The first edition was published in 1798, featuring 23 poems, primarily by Wordsworth, while subsequent editions included prefaces and critical statements about poetry's nature and language. Wordsworth's focus on rustic life and emotion contrasted with Coleridge's emphasis on the supernatural, leading to significant discussions about poetic diction and the responsibilities of poets.

1. Lyrical Ballads
-W. Wordsworth & S.T.
Coleridge
Prepared by- Jheel Barad
Department of English (sem-1)
M.K. Bhavnagar University.

2. What is Lyrical Ballad?
● Lyrical means expressing the writer's emotions in an
imaginative and beautiful way.
● A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music.
Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form,
consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of
14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB
repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines.

3. Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads is a collection of poems written by William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Lyrical Ballads is considered to be the beginning of the Romantic
age. It is one of the most important work of all the time.
It was a revolt against ideals of Neoclassical, it was an age of
Pope and Dryden writers who believed that there is no place for
imagination in literature. Literature is based on realism, logic and
reason.
On contrast, Wordsworth used imagination and used the
language of common men.

4. Editions
Editions Published in
Edition 1 1798
Edition 2 1800
Edition 3 1802
Edition 4 1805
Full Title: “Lyrical Ballads with few other Poems”

5. Lyrical Ballads
Collaborative work of W. Wordsworth and S.T.
Coleridge
1798
Collection of 23 poems
1800
Preface added by Wordsworth
1802
Poetic Diction added
1805
4th Edition

6. Edition 1
First edition of Lyrical Ballads was published anonymously
in 1798 in Bristol.
It consisted of 23 poems, among which 19 poems were
Written by W. Wordsworth and only 4 poems were Written by
S.T. Coleridge.
First poem of Lyrical Ballads is of S.T. Coleridge ‘The Rime
of Ancient Mariner’ and the last poem is ‘The lines written a
few miles above Tintern Abbey.’
Wordsworth emphasised on nature while coleridge
emphasised on supernatural elements.

7. In this edition, and advertisement was added were
Coleridge warned the readers that “The majority of the
following poems are to be considered as and experiment.”
He declares that his purpose is to see how conversational
language of the middle and the lower class men can be used
for the purpose of poetic creation.
Original text Lyrical ballads, Read An advertisement

8. Edition 2
Second edition appeared in 1800, It is special because it
included famous preface by Wordsworth.
All poems in this Edition were written by Wordsworth.
Preface is a critical statement by Wordsworth who wanted to
free poetry from artificial style of writing and bring in nearer
to the life, to the life of common people.
Preface
What is poetry?
Characteristics of
a Poet
Value of
poetry
Poetic diction

9. Second edition consisted 56 poems of Wordsworth and 5
poems of S.T. Coleridge
According to Preface by Wordsworth
What is poetry?
Spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling, recollected in tranquility.
Characteristics of poet.
The good poet is exceptionally sensitive.
A good poet is ‘A man speaking to men.’
He has extraordinary strong imagination.
Value of poem
The universal function of poetry is to make readers render and humane.

10. Preface consisted 8 points
1. Preference of humble and rustic life.
2. Choice of rustic language
3. Stress on emotion
4. Poetic diction
5. The poet
6. Poetic pleasure and poetic truth
7. Views on nature
8. The Poetic process

11. Edition 3
In this edition Wordsworth expanded the preface and published in 1802.
Poetic Diction was added in this edition;
‘Poetic diction is used to denote the linguistic style, the vocabulary and technique
used in writing of poetry.’
Wordsworth criticised Neoclassical writers such as Dryden and Pope for
using artificial poetic language.
He believed figures of speech should be organic to poetry, it should not be
added as ornaments.

12. Wordsworth also presented his views saying that there is no major
difference between the language of poem and prose.
While, Coleridge criticized Wordsworth’s this point as well as poetic
diction in his critical work ‘Biographia Litereria’.
Coleridge said that the principal difference between the language of
prose and poetry is metre.
The way words are ordered in poetry makes its language different
from prose.
Prose: “she went to the park.”
Poetry: “to the park, she went.”

13. Criticising Wordsworth Coleridge said that every man’s language
varies on the basis of his knowledge, emotions and activities. No two
men can speak in exact same manner.
Coleridge also points out that Wordsworth contradicted on his own
theory of poetic diction.
Wordsworth’s poetry ‘impassioned lofty and sustained language’ is not
written in language of rustics.

14. William Wordsworth believed that every poet has a social
responsibility of strengthening and promoting human
culture through his poetry.
Thank you

15. Resources
Wordsworth, William, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lyrical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems, in Two
Volumes. London: Printed for T.N. Longman and O. Rees, by Biggs and Cottle., 1802.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001428269.
The Literature Cabin. Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth: Explanation and Analysis, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxyC_buazfY.
Learning Literature with Purba. Preface to Lyrical Ballads | William Wordsworth | Romantic Criticism, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJc3FDyp45g.