William Wordsworth wrote several critical works including the Preface to Lyrical Ballads in 1800 and 1802. In the preface, he declared that poetry should use common language and focus on subjects from everyday life. He argued that poetry should portray ordinary things in an unusual way and trace the primary human emotions. Wordsworth believed poetry communicates in a higher realm of emotions, using meter to intensify feelings, differentiating it from prose.

1. WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH-
CRITICISM AND
THOUGHTS
By Anuja Raj

2. William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
• -wrote Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800 & 1802)
• Essay upon Epitaphs (1810)
• Prefaces to the Excursion (1814)
• Poems (1815)
• Preface to Lyrical Ballads-most vital essay

3. Preface to Lyrical Ballads
• -most authentic expression of the ideals of the
romantic movement.
• Written in 1800 and rewritten in 1802.
• Not perfectly organised as a piece of literary
theory.
• Speak as a representative of the common man
speaking to his fellow men.
• Declared that kings and countrymen need not be
the subject of all poetry and poets need not
have to keep a decorum.

4. Wordworth’s declaration..
• 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 colouring of imagination,
whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect;
and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting
by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our
nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a
state of excitement.

5. Views...
• He pleads for the retention of the common
language in poetry.
• Says that poetry should deal with the “essential
passions of the heart”
• He was of the view that the common man
constantly communicate with the best part of
the universe from which the best language
originates.

6. Characterisation of a good poet..
• Not just another human being but is an
uncommon man gifted in many ways and thus in
some sense superior to the common folk.
• Not a presenter of facts but gives immediate
pleasure to the reader.
• Not an intellectual activity but a powerful and
spontaneous overflow of emotions.

8. What differentiates a poetry and
prose
• Poetic communication happens in the higher
realm of emotions beyond facts and
informations.
• Language and order of words are similar in prose
and poem but use of metre intensifies the
emotions and feelings by adding charm to it.

9. • Wordsworth inspired the use of ordinary subjects
and ordinary language in poetry
• He was the first critic to talk about poetic
composition or language.
• He aggressively defends his own creation in his
critical piece.

10. • Literary criticism of Wordsworth was a manifesto
of the British Romantic movement.
• He views poetry as close to the religious insight
in the life of things.
• His criticism is rich in suggestions and personal
insights.
• Shifted emphasis from reader to poem into
relaionship between the poet and the poem.