Assignment
Name: Maheta Arati R.
Roll No:
3
Class : M.A.-1
Semester:
1
Paper: 3(Literary Theory& Criticism)
Topic: According to Wordsworth what should be the theme &
subject matter of poetry?
Submitted To:
Dilip Barad & Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University
What is poetry?
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.
Wordsworth’s
enormous poetic legacy rests on a large number of poems written by him. But the
themes that run through Wordsworth’s poetry remained consistent throughout. Even
the language and imagery he used to embody those themes, remained remarkably consistent.
They remained consistent to the canons Wordsworth had set out the Preface to
Lyrical Ballads. In his second edition of the Lyrical Ballads (1802),he wrote
Preface to defend himself form negative reviews.
Wordsworth argued that
poetry should be written in the real language of common man, rather than in the
lofty and elaborate diction that were then considered“poetic”.He believed that
the first principal of poetry should be pleasure and so the chief duty of
poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling.
All human sympathy, he asserted, is based on a subtle pleasure principal that
is “the naked and native dignity of man.’’
In the ‘’Advertisement’’ to the 1798 edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and Coleridge state
that the poems in the collection were intended as a
deliberate experiment in style and subject matter.Wordsworth elaborated
on this idea in the ‘’Preface” to the 1800and1802 edition which outline his
main ideas of a new theory of poetry.Wordsworth explained his poetical concept:
“The majority of the
following poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly
with a view to a ascertain how far the language of conversation in the
middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic
pleasure’’.
If the experiment with vernacular language was
not enough of a departure from the norm, the focus on simple, uneducated
country people as the subject of poetry was a signal of shift to modern literature.
One of the main themes of “Lyrical Ballads” is return to the original state
of nature, in which man led a purer and more innocent existence. Wordsworth
subscribed to Rousseau’s belief that man was essentially good and was corrupted
by the influence of society. This may be linked with the sentiments spreading
though Europe just prior to the French Revolution.
Wordsworth rejecting
the classical notion that poetry should be about elevated subject and should be
composed in a formal style; Wordsworth instead championed more democratic
themes the lives of ordinary men and women, farmers, paupers, and the rural
poor. In the “preface’’ he also emphasizes his commitment to writing in the
ordinary language of people, not a highly crafted poetical one. True to traditional
ballad form, the poems depict realistic characters in realistic situations, and
so contain a strong narrative element.
Brief review Wordsworth views on the ‘Theme’& Subject matter
of poetry:
v subject
matter of poetry
1) Object
The principle object then proposed in these poems
was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate and
describe them throughout, as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men, and at the same time ,to
throw over them a certain coloring of imagination, whereby ordinary things
should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect; and further and above all,
to make these situations and incidents interesting by tracing in them, truly thought not ostentatiously the primary laws of our nature:
chiefly as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of
excitement.
2) Humble and rustic life
Humble and rustic life was generally chosen,
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. Speak a
plainer and more emphatic language, because in that condition of life our elementary
feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity and consequently may be more
accurately contemplated and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of
rural life germinate from these elementary feelings and from the necessary character of
rural occupations are more easily comprehended and more durable and lastly,
because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the
beautiful and permanents forms of nature.
3) Language (style of poetry)
The language, too of
these men has been adopted purified indeed from what appear to be its real
defects ,from all lasting and rational
causes of dislike and disgust because such men communicate with the best
objects from which the best part of language is originally derived; and because
from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse,
being less under the influence of social variety, they convey their feelings
and notions in simple and elaborated expressions.
The function of
poetry According to Wordsworth.
According to
Wordsworth ‘Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the
impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science.’ Poetry is like morning star which throws its
radiance through the gloom and darkness of life. The poet is a teacher and
through the medium of poetry he imparts moral lessons for the betterment of
human life. Poetry is the instrument for the propagation of moral thoughts.Wordsworth’s
poetry does not simply delight us but it also teaches us deep moral lessons and
brings home to us deep philosophical truth about life and religion.Wordsworth believes
that a poetry of revolts against moral ideas is a poetry of revolts against
life or poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference
towards life.
Thus Wordsworth‘s view on poetical style are
the most revolutionary of all idea in his Preface. He discarded the gaudiness
and inane phraseology of many modern writers. He insists that his poems are
written in ‘selection of language of men in a state of vivid sensation’. His
views of poetic diction can be summed up as ‘there neither is nor can be any
essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.
