Wordsworth outlines his theory of poetry in the preface to Lyrical Ballads. He argues that poetry should use ordinary language to describe ordinary things and experiences from common life in order to present them in an unusual way. A good poem originates from spontaneous powerful emotions that are recollected with tranquility. Wordsworth also emphasizes that poetry should not use personifications or elevated style, but rather the simple language of men to transmit feelings. The subject of poetry, according to Wordsworth, should be common life, ordinary things, and regular feelings from nature.

1. PREFACE TO THE
SECOND EDITION OF
LYRICAL BALLADS
William Wordsworth (1880)
Esma Alver

2. • A romantic movement
• A guide which shows how a poem should be
• A transition line between Neo-classical era and Romantic
era
• A transition from scientific logic to nature

3. We can analyse lyrical ballads under three headlines;
1. Qualifications of a poet
2. Language of a poem
3. Topics of poem

4. According to Wordsworth, a poem should be;
• Talking to man
• Ordinary
• Not liar at all, he should speak the truths as well
• Presenting ordinary things
• Unique, individual, original

5. “The Principal object, then, proposed in these poems was
to choose incidents and situations from common life, and
to relate or describe them , throughout, as far as was
possible, in a selection of language really used by men,
and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain
coloring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should
be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect;”(154)

6. He defines a good poem as: “spontaneous overflow of
powerful emotions that recollected in tranquillity.”
• Balance in nature & Balance in poetry

7. Also, Wordsworth emphasizes that the language of a
poetry should be;
• Simple
• Not moral
• No personifications
• Not to educate people, but to transmit feelings

8. • “The reader will find that personifications of abstract
ideas rarely occur in these volumes, and are utterly
rejected, as an ordinary device to elevate the style,
and raise it above prose. My purpose was to imitate,
and, as far as possible, to adopt the very language of
men; and assuredly such personifications do not
make any natural or regular part of that poetry.”
(155)

9. “Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated
experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and
a far more philosophical language..”(154)
“The verse will be read a hundred times where the prose is
read once.”(162)

10. Wordsworth says that the subject of a poetry should be;
• Common life, ordinary things
• Regular feelings
• Anything in real world
• Beauty of the nature
• Situations through emotions rather than emotions
through situations

11. • “Humble and rustic life generally chosen, because, in
that condition, the essential passions of the heart
find a better soil which they can attain their maturity,
are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more
emphatic language;” (154)

12. Works cited
• http://education-portal.com/
• www.slideshare.net

13. • Thanks For Listening