Preface to Lyrical Ballads : Summary

Summary

[The summary is written point-based so that you can understand it easily]

Today we will discuss Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Before starting the discussion, let us know what the is Preface. The preface is basically an introduction i.e. before writing any literature the introduction about that literature is a Preface. In the preface, the author summarizes his writing, that is, what kind of writing he is writing, about whom he is writing, on which theme he is writing, and in which language he is writing, all these things are presented in the preface. Now let us know something about The lyrical ballads.

What is The lyrical ballad? Lyrical Ballad is a collection of 23 poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Here, among these 23 poems, 19 poems were written by William Wordsworth, and the remaining four poems were written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His most popular poem was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and it was with this poem that digital ballads were started. Lyrical ballads show that they basically came up with a new type of poetry. The concept of their poetry was completely different from that of contemporary poets due to which they have been criticized many times.

Editions of Lyrical Ballads: There are a total of four editions of Lyrical Ballads. The first edition was in 1798, the second in 1801, the third in 1802, and the fourth in 1805. But no preface was added when the first edition was published. The publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 heralded the beginning of the Romantic era. Lyrical Ballads serve as heralds of the Romantic era. Since no preface was added in the first edition of Lyrical Ballad, a preface was added in the next edition of 1800 and there it is said what type of writing they wrote in these Lyrical Ballads and about whom they wrote.

When they published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, they did not use the same language or words as contemporary writers. They used slightly different words and language. Due to this many contemporary poets started criticizing them in various ways. This is why in 1800 a Preface was added to the Lyrical Ballads and it was mentioned in the Preface that they wrote a completely new kind of writing and in this writing, they wrote about the common people and wrote for those who wished well for the country, wrote about the patriots and Wrote about nature, also wrote about the supernatural in That Means Supernatural Thinking.

The theme of Watsworth’s poem: He emphasizes why and how Watsworth chose the subjects of his poems. He has tried to differentiate his writings from contemporary writers and writers of the past. He believed that faithfulness to emotional truth and nature rather than referencing actual observations or events would do more to give ordinary readers insight into their own lives. He chose the rural life system instead of the urban life system as the subject of his writings. According to Wordsworth, the main aim of romantic poetry is to select incidents and situations from ordinary life and make them usable by common people. And they can be imaginary or real. So he preferred simple rural life as the subject of his poetry. Emotions can be seen in his poems. Moreover, rural people have less pride and are simple-minded.

Characteristics and qualities of poetry: Wordsworth says that poetry will have certain characteristics. Poetry should be spontaneous and in simple language that readers can understand as soon as they are read. He says poetry will be a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;” That is, while writing poetry, one must have a clear idea about the subject. Suppose a thought comes to mind or a poem is written from a simple observation about a beautiful thing, but that poem is not a perfect poem. Because there are several steps to go through to write a poem. And if the poem can be written through these steps, then the poem will be spontaneous and easy to understand, which will be easy for the readers to understand. Wordsworth forbids the use of difficult language in writing poetry because the use of difficult language makes poetry difficult for ordinary people to understand. He basically said to use the meter in poetry because using the meter will match the rhythm and make it easier for the readers to understand the poem. Above all, he wanted to say or explain that the language of poetry will be simple and the thinking will be very deep.

Preferring poetry over prose: Wordsworth preferred poetry to prose. He basically means that poetry amuses readers more than prose. If readers read prose once, they will read poetry many times because poetry creates pleasure in the reader’s mind and makes them relate to the nature of the poem i.e. they find themselves in the poem. Because poetry has the use of meter and rhyme that make the poem meaningful.

Wordsworth speaks of science here. He says poetry is much higher than science. He explained that when a scientist discovers a thing, the joy of his discovery is only within him. But when a poet writes a poem, he gets the same pleasure from writing a poem as when a reader reads his poem. Because of this, he said poetry is much higher than science.

Theory of Poetry: Wordsworth mentions four theories for writing poetry. To write a meaningful poem, a poet must take care of these four things and if one writes a poem by passing these four steps, then that poem will definitely be a meaningful poem.

ObservationFirst of all, in writing a poem, one must observe a subject. After completing the complete observation, proceed to the second step.

Recollecting: After completing the observation about the topic, you have to save different information about that topic. After collecting various information, the third step should be done.

Filtering: This step is to see which things can be kept and which things need to be dropped. That is to say, you have to select carefully which topics you choose to write poems that will be acceptable to everyone. and will delight readers.

Creation of Poetry: In this step, you have to write poetry. So if you can pass these four steps well then the poem will be a worthwhile poem.