19 pages 38 minutes read

William Wordsworth

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1800

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Themes

The Democratic Ideals of the Romantic Movement

Typifying the ideals of the Romantic movement, Wordsworth argues that poetry should be understood by the common person and should use everyday language. This is in contrast to the poetic style cultivated by 18th-century classicist poets like Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray, which strove for loftiness of effect and often employed a special “poetic” vocabulary not used in ordinary conversation. Further, Wordsworth argues in favor of choosing as the subjects of poetry “incidents and situations from common life” (2). His rationale is that poetry expresses human emotions—unlike science, which seeks a more abstract and impersonal truth—and thus should remain close to human feelings, concerns, and modes of expression.

Wordsworth’s emphasis on bringing poetry to the level of the common person reflects the democratic ideals of the Romantic movement, inspired in part by the American and French Revolutions. Romanticist artists advocated the idea that art should appeal to the many instead of being the province of an intellectual or aristocratic elite—who were the traditional patrons of art from the Renaissance through the 18th century. Not only were common people the proper audience for poetry, but they could also be a worthy subject for poetry because they lived (in many cases) close to

blurred text

blurred text

Related Titles

By William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

A Complaint

William Wordsworth

A Complaint

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary
logo

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

William Wordsworth

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

William Wordsworth

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

Daffodils

William Wordsworth

Daffodils

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

William Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

Tintern Abbey

William Wordsworth

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

London, 1802

William Wordsworth

London, 1802

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary
logo

Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth

Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

William Wordsworth

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways

William Wordsworth

She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

She Was a Phantom of Delight

William Wordsworth

She Was a Phantom of Delight

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary
logo

The Prelude

William Wordsworth

The Prelude

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

The Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth

The Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

The World Is Too Much with Us

William Wordsworth

The World Is Too Much with Us

William Wordsworth

Study Guide
logo

To the Skylark

William Wordsworth

To the Skylark

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary
logo

We Are Seven

William Wordsworth

We Are Seven

William Wordsworth