The Nineteenth Century Romantic School of Poetry

• Many critics believe that the key year for English Romanticism is
1798, the year that saw the publication of the Lyrical Ballads by
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and other
romantic poets.

• In the preface to the second edition, Wordsworth laid down most of

•Art is an expression of powerful feelings. Emotions and feelings are the source of true
moral guidance. Art is a subjective activity. The focus is on the poet's feelings.
•The most suitable language for the purpose of poetry is everyday language, which is
simple, sensitive, rustic, and natural. That is why romantic poets prefer to use the
language of primitive people.
•Romantic poets are nostalgic. In other words, there is a strong interest in the past with
its heroic and mythological world.
•There is also a deep interest in nature, not only as a source of beautiful scenes but also
as a spiritual teacher of man. The interest in nature grew into a faith, a kind of natural
religion.
•There is a respect for children as they are closer to whatever is natural. Children are
approached in the same way as "skylarks" and "daffodils".
• The "Gothic" was a prevailing aspect in Nineteenth Century Romanticism. The
"Gothic" indicates a love of all that is wild, mysterious, and supernatural.
The Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Ø The Publication of the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads came as a shock
to the 18th century people. The critics considered its language too simple
and the change too violent.
Ø This important book, which was a joint work of William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was the signal of the beginning of the Romantic
age.
Ø Most of the poems in the 1798 edition were written by Wordsworth, with
only four poems written by Coleridge, including one of his most famous
works, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Ø A second edition was published in 1800, in which Wordsworth added
additional poems and a preface.
The Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Ø The crucial document announcing their new ideas was

Wordsworth’s preface to Lyrical Ballads, which was a romantic

manifesto.

Ø In part, the preface owes its particular importance to the fact that

it announced a set of ideas about the nature and criteria of poetry

which were generally adopted by Wordsworth’s contemporaries.

Ø Wordsworth explained that the first edition of Lyrical Ballads was

published as a sort of experiment to test the public reception of

poems that use “The real language of men in a state of vivid

sensation”.
The Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Ø Wordsworth relates that he and his friends wish to start a new type of poetry
seen in Lyrical Ballads.
Ø He says the motives behind starting this new genre of poetry are too complex to
fully articulate in so few words. Thus, he has decided to furnish a preface where
his poems are so different from the poems of his age and that require at least a
brief explanation as to their conception.
Ø Wordsworth was not alone in his endeavor to start a new type of poetry.
Ø The preface was important because it contained a number of ideas about the
nature and function of poetry, which were generally adopted by Wordsworth’s
contemporaries, including those who were not in complete agreement with him.
Ø Wordsworth’s view became the generally accepted theory among all the
Romantics. This theory can be generally viewed as an expressive theory of
poetry and it continued to be popular during the nineteenth century.
 Wordsworth’s views implied in
the preface of the Lyrical Ballads
Ø Wordsworth wants to use the preface to explain why he writes poetry the way he
does, so that people don’t see his nonconformity as laziness.
Ø He implies that at different times, different styles of poetry were considered great.
In other words, each generation lives in a different situation and thus naturally
prefers a different style of poetry that aligns with or responds to the times.
Ø According to Wordsworth, the aim of art in general and of poetry in particular, is
to project the character of the poet into the work of art. Therefore, in the romantic
period, much of the major poetry focuses on the poet.
Ø The poem that Wordsworth had in mind was not epic or tragedy, but the lyrical
poem. For most romantics, the lyric has become the essential poetic form. The
adoption of the lyric was accompanied by an improvement of this form and in the
variety of excellence, which was unknown before in literary history.
 Wordsworth’s views implied in
the preface of the Lyrical Ballads
Ø Wordsworth characterized “all good poetry” as “the spontaneous overflow”
of feelings. He relates that his principal goal in writing the poems in the
Lyrical Ballads was to portray common life in an interesting and honest way
and to appeal to readers' emotions by generating “a state of excitement”.
Ø He chose to depict common life because in that situation people are
generally more self-aware and more honest.
Ø The feelings that arise in that condition are simpler, more understandable
and more durable. Furthermore, the language of the “peasantry” is pure, as
common people are in constant communication with nature and far away
from “social vanity”.
Ø Wordsworth believed that the language of poetry ought to be the same as
the language of a simple farm worker.
 Wordsworth’s views implied in
the preface of the Lyrical Ballads

Ø As stated in the preface “the principal object which I proposed to myself 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 way”
Ø Wordsworth says that humble and rustic life has been chosen as the theme of poetry
because in that condition “the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in
which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a
plainer and more emphatic language”
Ø Wordsworth’s decision to use common life and language in his poetry implies that
upper-class life and lofty language are insufficient for poetic expression. Throughout
the preface, he seems to equate cosmopolitanism with corruption.