How Preface to the Lyrical Ballads a Manifesto for British romanticism?

Lyrical Ballads was a series of poetry by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that
was first published in 1798. There are 23 poems, out of which 4 by Coleridge and remaining by
Wordsworth himself. The preface was then added in its second publication, that was in 1800.
So. What is a preface? Preface is a part of a book, the author writes before the starting of his
work, where he tells the readers about his intention, motivation and expectation regarding this
writing, it's a personal one on one between the author and the reader. When they first published
Lyrical Ballads, it was a kind of experiment to test public reception of a new different kind of
poetry, but it created a revolutionary effect and that's why Wordsworth decided to add the
preface.
So. Now the question is what is the difference and newness? If we go back to the Neoclassical
age, we will find that the poets of that time period preferred writing imitating the classical poets,
there was no space for imagination, they were writing relying on the already existing rules. They
were using very strict words, high vocabulary and language, very much strict about grammatical
points, they made their poetry metal strong, very much technical, metrical style was very strict.
All they were trying to do was just to imitate the Greek and Latin poets, and made a fixed
framework. According to them poetry must be following this rules, otherwise it would not be
considered as poetry. But, by the time people got fed up with this so much rigid and artificial
creations, and around 1780-1790 few poets began to feel that there should come few changes,
poetry should be lyrical, it should spring out of heart as well as touch the heart of the reader too.
William Blake was one of those poets.
At the same time the French revolution started in France, that gave a shake to the foundation of
Europe, including England too. People were raising their voice against monarchy, taxes, and
wanted to break the existing social and cultural rules. There was a revolutionary wave
throughout Europe, while every aspect of the society was getting effected, why should literature
poetry be left alone? So, this is around the time when Wordsworth and Coleridge were young
poets, they also felt to some extent that there should come a change of poetry, there should
come something new to heal the boredom with rigid and strict Neoclassical creations. But, they
were in doubt, how to write differently, what to incorporate or express, whether it was the right
moment of doing or not, whether it would get public acceptance or not. But, the French
revolution worked as a push for them, they decided to go with the flow and published Lyrical
Ballads in 1798. Within a few years there were several publications in 1800, 1802 and 1805.
Hence, it's already understood how much their writing effected. But, what were the elements
they actually brought about in their writing? Why is this called a manifesto i.e. a written
statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views before a war or election?
Contrary to Neoclassical rigidity, Romantic poets were against following any absolute rules for
their creations. According to them poetry should come out of the individual feelings and
experiences of a poet, he'll express his own voice there. It should be written in a language so
that it can reach as far as possible among the mass. And Preface to Lyrical Ballads is telling us
about all these qualities that can create a pure and beautiful piece of poetry.

Here, Wordsworth mainly focuses on a few very important points. First of all, a poet should
avoid artificiality while creating a poem. In the Neoclassical age poets were only trying to imitate
ancient poets, Classical poets like Latin and Greek poets, they tended less to imagination rather
their poetry were essentially concerned about the stories of King, Queen, war, mythology,
heroes etc. So. what the poet himself was feeling, his individual opinion about life and death,
love and hatred and other personal emotions, that was not told there. They talked about
morality, virtue, social issues etc. But, Willaim Wordsworth wanted to write such poems where
he could express his own feelings, his own imagination.
According to Wordsworth, poets should avoid triviality while writing a poem. Poetry can not be
relying on some fixed subject matters. The poet must express his own philosophy there, he will
talk about his own spirituality. Wordsworth advises to write about Nature. According to him
poetry should be created out of common instances of life. Contrary to the Neoclassical poets, he
is saying that his poetry must be written in "the real language of men". According to him a poet
"is a man speaking to men" that means he is such an individual who says something that people
will listen to. He is the one who is gifted with "more lively sensibility", that means they are
unique, because we all have senses, but we all can not convert our sensation into a creation,
that's why they are superior, they have a greater understanding of human ,nature and world ,
they have the capability to find something extraordinary within an ordinary. If the poet uses
language and words that can be understood only by learned and knowledgeable persons then
how will he reach many people? It must be of "incidents and situations from common life"
described in "the real language of men".

Wordsworth is saying about liberty and freedom for writing poetry. His opinion is that liberty and
freedom are the fundamental qualities of human rights, and every person should have a right to
create a poetry of his own choice. Specifically they are different from the Neoclassicals in this
regard, they expressed their feelings. Wordsworth says that "Poetry is spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings." He's saying that there are moments and experiences in our life which make
us so full of feelings and boil up our emotions ,we can not control and we should put it on paper.
Thus, poetry seeks to produce "excitement" and "an overbalance of pleasure". As for instance,
Wordsworth himself writes "Tintern Abbey" when he came to visit with his sister Dorothy, he
was standing on the river bank, overwhelmed by the flow of the river and beauty of the
magnificent valley around, he felt something inside, he went back to room and started writing his
poem. According to him, poets should write about Nature, not only in order to glorify the beauty
of nature but also to escape from city life. Life away from the City is free from "all real defects' '
and is "pure". For him "Nature was not an end" rather it was a medium, it helps us to escape
from the chaos and impure city life and gives us more space for thinking and imagination.
Because, according to him, only experience and the feelings can not alone produce poetry.
There should be recollection of those memories in tranquility and reliving or reconstructing those
powerful feelings and their spontaneous overflow, that can only happen at an isolated place far
from crowds.
Hence, the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is considered the beginning of the
Romantic Movement in English literature. Wordsworth believes that the truth of poetry “is
the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in
the countenance of all Science.” In this statement he states that poetry surpasses any
other kind of science and maintains that Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge—it
is as immortal as the heart of man.