Wordsworth's Elements in Romantic Literature: Idealistic vs. Common Artforms

Wordsworth's Elements in Romantic Literature: Idealistic vs. Common Artforms

Annotations:

• The basic elements and purposes described in Wordsworth's "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" not only represent a unique period in literature known as the Romantic Era, but also explore an underlying theme of idealistic forms of art versus common forms of art; in this theme, the beauty of the common is emphasized.
• Four elements: sensation, originality, language, and audience. 

1. Originality

   Annotations:

   • Originality can be used to avoid cliches and abstractions in writing by using novel, concrete ideas and grounding the work with common aspects of nature.
   1. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "I have also thought it expedient to restrict myself further, having abstained from the use of many expressions, in themselves proper and beautiful, but which have been foolishly repeated by bad poets, till such feelings of disgust are connected with them as it is scarcely possible by any art of association to overpower." (141) "...ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way; and, further, and above all, to makes these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature." (138)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • Although the metaphors/images that have been used may have had beauty in themselves near their beginning, they have become cliche and writers must find a new way to portray these ideas. Instead of using the 'idealistic' images presented by poets over and over, finding an original way to present new ideas is much more interesting. In order to present these new ideas, a writer can use the commonalities of human nature to connect the reader with the work. 
   2. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "The reader will find that personifications of abstract ideas rarely occur in these volumes...such personifications do not make any natural or regular part of that language." (140)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • Ideas must be grounded with real life, concrete occurrences. In this, the common is much more useful than the abstract, because it is very easy for the reader to get lost in large, abstract ideas. To be in regular experience is to be inside the work of the writer, and in turn, it is more likely for the reader to emotionally respond to the writer's words.
2. Sensation

   Annotations:

   • One of the main elements of Romantic literature is the emotion that it expresses and evokes, which is an experience of the common writer and common reader.
   1. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "...all good poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." (138) "...illustrate the manner in which our feelings and ideas are associated in a state of excitement." (139)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • By expressing these feelings through poetry, the writer is rejecting the previous rules of poetry by connecting with innate human responses as opposed to strictly reason.
   2. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "...such a language, arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than [those poets who]...separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression." (138)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • Previous poets, who were seen as the 'idealistic' poets, often wrote about subject matter that distanced the reader from the writer. By attaching common emotions to the writing, the writer is allowing for any regular person to read and relate to their poems. 
3. Audience

   Annotations:

   • The way in which a writer chooses to write his or her work, in regards to language, subject matter, literary devices, etc., informs what kind of audience the piece will allow for: that of common people, or that of restricted readers.
   1. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "It is supposed, that by the act of writing in verse an author makes a formal engagement that he will gratify certain known habits of association; that he not only thus apprizes the reader that certain classes of ideas and expressions will be found in his book, but that others will be carefully excluded." (137)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • Wordsworth is describing the way in which he feels that the idealistic poets tend to write strictly for a certain audience (namely, the upper class) and purposefully exclude other audiences that are supposedly not privileged enough to experience the art of written word (the lower classes). 
   2. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "...[the poet] should consider himself as in the situation of a translator."
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • By becoming a translator, the writer is widening the audience range in which an idea can be shared to. The role of the translator is not to restrict communication, but in fact, to enhance it. 
4. Language

   Annotations:

   • The choice of language the writer uses affects the availability of their work: common language can be interpreted by common people, while more eloquent, made-up language can only be interpreted by those who have been exposed to it, which unsurprisingly, are typically only people of the upper class. 
   1. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "...the language of prose may yet be well adapted to poetry." (142) "...there neither is, not can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition." (142)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • In this, metrical composition refers to poetry, and therefore, poetry and prose should be one in the same. By saying that poetry and prose should not be two separate things, Wordsworth is saying that poetry should be written in unstructured, common language.  
   2. Textual Evidence

      Annotations:

      • "I proposed myself in these poems 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." (138)
      1. Supporting Points

         Annotations:

         • To write in such a language that people actually would use, the writer is allowing for his or her audience to be that of any class, upper, middle, or lower, and obstains from restricting any masses (unless illiterate) from the work itself. 
5. Conclusion

   Annotations:

   • Wordsworth embodies a greater population of Romantic writers in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" by outlining the elements expected of Romantic poetry; in these outlines, a theme of idealistic versus common artforms is present, where emphasis on the importance of commonality lies.