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William WordsworthA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
In 1798, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads. In 1800, a second edition of the volume appeared with an expanded introductory section titled “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” which was written by Wordsworth. This preface soon became an outline for a new wave of poetry called Romanticism. One important idea that Wordsworth expounded upon was the idea that poetry should be driven by “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth, William. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads.” Famous Prefaces. The Harvard Classics, 1909-14). This emotion should be “recollected in tranquility” and “contemplated” until a “kindred [reaction] to that which was before the subject of contemplation […] does itself actually exist in the mind” (“Preface”). “Daffodils” is a thorough example of this idea. The image of the daffodils that the speaker envisions when lonely becomes, during contemplation, a source of “wealth” (Line 18) to be drawn upon when feeling low.
Other important ideas regarding Romanticism laid out in the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” include the following: Poetic form should be unforced but can also be experimental; nature encourages understanding of self and inspires communion; elements of the supernatural, folklore, and magic are beautiful; poetic language and experience should be commonplace; and there are human limits that one can strive to move beyond.
By William Wordsworth
A Complaint
A Complaint
William Wordsworth
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
William Wordsworth
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth
Tintern Abbey
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...
William Wordsworth
London, 1802
London, 1802
William Wordsworth
Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
My Heart Leaps Up
My Heart Leaps Up
William Wordsworth
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
William Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
William Wordsworth
She Was a Phantom of Delight
She Was a Phantom of Delight
William Wordsworth
The Prelude
The Prelude
William Wordsworth
The Solitary Reaper
The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth
The World Is Too Much with Us
The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth
To the Skylark
To the Skylark
William Wordsworth
We Are Seven
We Are Seven
William Wordsworth