Wordsworth's Preface and "Lyrical Ballads"

   


First published in 1798, “Lyrical Ballads” started the romanticism period in literature. “Lyrical Ballads” is a collection of poems written by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth and Coleridge were able to bond quickly developing a strong friendship that would help them work together. Although Coleridge helped write many of the poems in Lyrical Ballads, he put most of his time into “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” his most well known poem. Meaning that Wordsworth ended up writing the majority of the poems.  Dorothy, Wordsworth’s sister, who was close to him at the time, influenced his poetry.  One of the main themes in “Lyrical Ballads” was that everything could be related to nature, and it was important to “return to the original state of nature.”

After the publishing of the “Lyrical Ballads” Wordsworth believed that a preface explaining his work was necessary. The second edition published in 1800 included more poems as well as the preface. In the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”  Wordsworth believes that his poems are only experimental. Wordsworth’s preface consists of what he believed to be excellent poetry. 

Wordsworth claimed that poetry should be more natural and written with common speech rather then the previous “poetic” writing, and that emotions that are contained in memory should be expressed.  He wanted his poetry to be understandable by all readers and have language a common man could understand.  Coleridge, however, believed that a “poetic” type of writing  made the poet look more intelligent and that imagination  is what really made a poem excellent. Wordsworth on the other hand, believed that the priority of poetry should be to provide pleasure to the reader, by expressing feelings and emotions. 

Together they believed that poems should be “artful”, meaning the poems should be complex and make a reader think. In “Lyrical Ballads” Wordsworth makes it a priority to write about concepts and ideas that readers can easily relate to. When writing about nature, readers can easily relate because nature surrounds  uss. The 1798 edition “Lyrical Ballads” was made up of over 20 poems, only four 0f which were written by Coleridge.