COLERIDGE ON WORDSWORTH'S PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS'

Author(s): CHRISTINE WINBERG

Source: Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory , May 1984, No. 62 (May 1984),
pp. 29-43
Published by: Berghahn Books

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41791382

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 COLERIDGE ON WORDSWORTH'S
PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS'

by CHRISTINE WINBERG

There is a tradition in Wordsworthian criticism which has been

handed down from Coleridge, Matthew Arnold, Leslie Stephen,
and Irving Babbitt; and which persists in the contemporary critical
writings of Herbert Read, Helen Danby, W.J.B. Owen, and'
Stephen Prickett. This tradition has it that Wordsworth exalts
emotion at the expense of intellect,1 instinct in place of thought,2
and spontaneity in place of morality.3 The tradition holds that
Wordsworth's critical writings are largely nonsensical; and where
they do make sense they are derived from Coleridge.4 Critics in this
tradition are also convinced that Wordsworth's theories and his
practice have, happily, very little in common, and endorse
Coleridge's view that:
In short ... his only disease is the being out of his element; like the
swan, that, having amused himself, for a while, with crushing the
weeds on the river's bank, soon returns to his own majestic movements
on its reflecting and sustaining surface.5

The transformation of the ungainly waddlings of the swan among

the weeds to the grandeur of its own motion on the water, is
Coleridge's image for the contrast between Wordsworth's critical
theory and his best poetry.
It is my aim in this paper to take issue with what I believe is an
erroneoiis tradition. Wordsworth's critical writings are incidental
and fairly random, but nevertheless partake of the mainstream of
critical thought and are central to the understanding of his poetry. I
believe that much of Coleridge's Wordsworthian criticism which
gave rise to the erroneous tradition, is unwarranted; and, in fact, it
is my contention that the literary theories of both men have much in
common.

Coleridge's succinct criticisms of Wordsworth's theory o

diction, for example, have often been noted; but their basic i
poetic language stem from a common concern. Both saw
classical tendency to adhere to 'rules' as a negation of the
impulse and, in essence, their aims are the same: to infuse
into the language of poetry which had become dulled by cust
overuse.

Coleridge praises Wordsworth's 'reformation in

diction',6 but goes on to take issue with several a
Wordsworth's theory. His first objection is that poet
cannot be the monopoly of the rural classes, and Wo
diction is 'by no means taken from low or rustic life in t

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 30 THEORIA

acceptation (my
is surprising t
acceptation',
significance of
'permanence' o
hopes will imp
out, anyone wh
diction or sy
between rustic
of discourse ar
the stress of ge
Coleridge's r
convey the imp
is peppered wit
It is confined t
'the language
comparison be
differences in
rustic diction
poems of the
men' is for gen
original rustic
Coleridge imp
men' are one a
he attributes to Wordsworth:

The language of these men (i.e. men in low and rustic life)
I propose myself to imitate and, as far as possible, to
adopt the very language of men'.13

This is a misquotation made by combining two separate ideas which

are some one hundred lines apart. This is what Wordsworth actually
said:

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 or disgust) ... 14
(1198-100)
My purpose was to imitate and, as far as possible, to adopt the very
language of men; and assuredly such personifications do not make up
any natural or regular part of languages. 15
(11201-4)

I have included the latter part of the second quotation to show that
'the very language of men' has nothing to do with rustic diction.
While 'the very language of men' may not be a satisfactory term for
Wordsworth's diction (it should be remembered that it 'imitated', in

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PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS' 31

the technical sense) it is understand

overwrought quality of much late Augusta
So too the term 'prose' seems to Wordsw
term for describing a style which is fre
poetic encumbrances. He obviously did
Coleridge implies. Coleridge insists on se
writing which is matter-of-fact and unm
notice of Wordsworth's insistence that t
must not be matter-of-fact and must b
metaphors'.
Wordsworth has an intense dislike of the conventionally 'poetic',
of Gray and Collins's arbitrary inversion of natural word order, of
Johnson's bombastic Latinisms, and of Erasmus Darwin who
combined both. Wordsworth's pet hate is a particular variety
of stereotyped personification which involves inappropriate
periphrasis. (He allows himself to personify natural phenomena in a
more natural way). But Coleridge refuses to see words like 'rustic'
and 'prose' as a reaction to Augustan excesses. Instead he seizes
upon these words, and in his eagerness to show that they are not the
stuff of poetry, he loses touch with the spirit behind Wordsworth's
innovations.
Coleridge argues that the principle of a 4 selection of the real
language of men' is an insufficient one for the process of poetic
creation. This is because, in the first place, the poet must have
'previous possession' of the language from which the selection is to
be made - and the language he possesses will not be that of the
rustic; and secondly, there are no known 'rules' that might be
applied to this selective process.16 Coleridge again equates the
'language of men' with rustic speech, which is a basic problem in this
and other arguments. However, conceding Coleridge his point, he
is surely wrong in holding that rustic speech has no virtues of its
own, and he is still more perverse in his opinion that it is impossible
to select from a dialect without destroying its peculiarity. Hazlitt
points out that if Coleridge's contention were true it would be
impossible for any style of writing to retain its distinctive quality.17
Coleridge's introduction of 'rules' is quite out of character;
Wordsworth has an imaginative, not a mechanical process of
selection in mind.
In an expressive theory of poetry, poetic diction is bound to play
a significant part. The conventions in the Gray sonnet which
Wordsworth discusses, like:
And reddening Phoebus lifts his golden fire:

are rejected because their conventional nature entails an avoidance

of direct feeling and perception. They represent a set of conventions
that have been handed down from one generation of poets to

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 32 THEORIA

another. The
powerful feel
metaphorical,
My lonely angu

but by avoidin
his emotions, t
lacking in the
Coleridge argu
and Wordswort
the foregoing
Prose may yet
seems to hav
conversational
theory of poet
Last of The F
'current in all r
rustic would have used them? Nowhere in the Preface does
Wordsworth state that he is content to limit himself to a rustic
vocabulary and syntactical arrangement. His aim is to revivify
poetic language, not to contribute to its stultification. In the midst
of all this hairsplitting, Coleridge has completely lost touch with the
spirit behind Wordsworth's innovations.
Coleridge suggests, correctly, that Wordsworth's use of the word
'real' is a reaction to the 'gaudy affectation'19 of current poetic
styles, and that Wordsworth has, in consequence, chosen a style as
remote as possible from the 'false and showy splendour which he
wished to explode'. 20Wordsworth, he states, is not the first poet to
opt for simplicity of style: the German poets Garve and Geliert have
done so before him. Their style is:

just as one would wish to talk, and yet dignified, attractive, and
interesting; and all the time perfectly correct as to the measures of the
syllables and the rhyme.21

Coleridge's description of the German poets approximates

Wordsworth's description of 'similitude in dissimilitude':
Now the music of harmonious metrical language ... an indistinct
perception perpetually renewed of language closely resembling that
of real life, and yet, in the circumstance of metre, differing from
it so widely - all these imperceptibly make up a complex feeling of
delight . . .22

Coleridge accepts his description of the German poets as a valid

statement of what nineteenth-century poetry should be, but fails to
see the similarity between this and Wordsworth's argument.

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PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS' 33

Coleridge goes on to suggest that there ar

opted for a 'simple style'. Spenser's Faer
extreme simplicity and beauty, showing
image, passion, and metre'. Chaucer's Tr
give the impression of being natural and un
interdependence of meaning and poetry.
a species of wit where scholar and poet sup
perfect well-bred gentleman the expr
Coleridge's championing of these poets
exception of Spenser, they were not g
choice of poets is significant for all a
champions of the 'real language of men'.
What Coleridge has done is to substitu
Wordsworth's 'the real language of men' - and although
Coleridge's term may be preferable because it is less ambiguous,
Wordsworth and Coleridge are really saying the same thing. This
gives rise to several misconceptions in the Biographia , without
Coleridge appearing to realize it.
Coleridge's criticism of Wordsworth's theory of metre centres on
the word 'superadded', which is an unfortunate choice of word to
describe something which is, in Coleridgean terminology, 'organic'.
Coleridge states:
nothing can permanently please which does not contain in itself the
reason why it is so . . . if metre be superadded to poetry then all the
otherparts must be made consonant with it.24

The problem is that Coleridge implies that this is all that

Wordsworth ever said about metre, and this is a mis-statement.
Metre, according to Coleridge, exists 'to check the workings of
passion'.25 Metrical composition differs from prose in that it
expresses a higher state of excitement, and also because this
excitement is controlled by artificial means. Coleridge here raises a
central concern of expressive theories: to what extent can poetry be
'the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'? If Coleridge is
suggesting that metre alone is a sufficient controlling agent, then I
do not think that he is correct. What Wordsworth says of
'recollection in tranquillity' by a poet who has thought 'long and
deeply' is more relevant to the problem of control. Collingwood's
distinction between the 'betrayal of emotion' and the 'expression of
emotion* is a useful discrimination in this context.26 The poet's own
understanding of his emotions is of far greater importance as a
'check on the workings of passion' than mere metre.
Coleridge goes on to make some rather uninteresting points
about the various effects (serious, humorous, etc) of metre. By
contrast, Wordsworth's theory of metre gives rise to a profound
enquiry into the nature of metre and its many diverse effects.

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34 THEORIA

Wordsworth co
midst of the ab
which can be i
to 'cancell out'
feelings. Any
immediate effe
the control of
can thus lift '
level. Metre has
its reality, an
unsubstantial e
a parallel in A
element in trag
changes the fee
metre, Word
Shakespeare ar
even the artles
the pathos of
Wordsworth's i
Wordsworth
operation of m
metrical comp
although he d
confining him
seem to ackno
for he states:

The discussion
ingenious and to

He then goes on
But I cannot fin
separately. On t
metre by the p
of) its combinat

Has Coleridge n
integral part o
whole point
'superadded' to
can its powers
seems at times
when he does
suggests that
quite free of p
For Coleridge,
mind, so it i

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PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS' 35

Wordsworth's assertion that 'all good poet

overflow of powerful emotions'. Of cours
nor Coleridge would deny the co-presence
emotional elements. For Coleridge art is an
the 'property of passion is not to create b
activity';31 while for Wordsworth the intelle
who has thought 'long and deeply'32 is a ch
powerful emotions'. Wordsworth is not fo
that emotion alone creates poetry, as
thought.
Coleridge concedes that emotion plays an important role in
prompting an author to write, but what happens once he has
received the initial impetus from his feelings? Does he now forget
these feelings and concentrate on the aesthetic task of writing the
poem? Or does he, as Collingwood suggests, carry the emotion with
him throughout the creation of the poem, seeking to become fully
conscious of it, to understand it, and to clarify it so that others may
understand it too? The problem is one of control, and Coleridge
implies this control when he talks of a 'more than usual state of
emotion with more than usual order';33 Wordsworth also, in the
'recollection in tranquillity' section speaks of the emotion being
'contemplated', presumably a mental process, and also of the
emotion being 'voluntarily' described.34
Wordsworth's theory of control has an interesting development.
Although the 'spontaneous overflow . . .' is an incomplete account
of poetic creation (as Wordsworth himself acknowledges in
introducing the 'recollected in tranquillity' qualification), it raises
the issue of sincerity. F.R. Leavis suggests that poetry which aims to
convey a poet's emotions should be judged by the criterion of
sincerity.35 A lack of organized expression does not indicate
sincerity; on the contrary, a poet who, for example, professes to be
expressing grief but who in fact wallows in that emotion, is really
enjoying his grief and is therefore quite insincere in his expression.
On the other hand, the poet who has come to terms with his grief, is
the poet who can express it accurately, and therefore sincerely.36
Both Wordsworth and Coleridge believe that creation of poetry
has its origins in the emotional and intellectual qualities of the poet,
and they therefore find it impossible to define poetry before asking
the question: 'what is a poet'? But while this is a basic similarity,
there are substantial differences which are best demonstrated by a
comparison of the relevant passages. Wordsworth's reply to the
question 'What is a Poet?' is that:
He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more
lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater
knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul than are
supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own

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36 THEORIA

passions and vo
spirit of life th
and volitions in
to create them
added a disposi
things as if th
passions, which
real events, ye
which are ple
passions produ
motions of thei
in themselves:
readiness and
especially thos
from the struc
external excitem

Coleridge's def
What is poetry
that the answer
is a distinction
and modifies t
mind. The poet
man into activit
according to th
spirit of unity
synthetic and
appropriated th
by the will and
though gentle
itself in the b
qualities: of s
concrete; the
representative;
objects; a more
order; judgem
enthusiasm and
harmonizes the
nature; the ma
our sympathy w

In these two
similarity. The
Wordsworth b
man speaking
poet is 'endow
'comprehensiv
on an even g
perceiving thei

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PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS' 37

poetry. Wordsworth therefore im

simultaneously a member of common h
representative of mankind. Coleridge's
which brings 'the whole soul of man into
identification with common human
manifestation of that humanity.
Coleridge emphasises the wholeness o
emotional and intellectual aspects in b
man into activity', and the imaginatio
between the parts which have been mad
consistent with Coleridge's theory of
surprising is the emphasis that Wo
imagination, although Coleridge would cal
'esemplastic imagination'. Wordsworth
peculiar quality of being 'affected more
things as if they were present . . .' This w
some fifteen years before the Biograp
hardly surprising that Wordsworth sh
comprehensive theory of the imagina
dictionary definition, which is:
Imagination : Fancy; the power of forming
representing things absent to oneself or ot

Thus the latter part of Wordsworth's d

'power of forming ideal pictures', and the
representing things absent to oneself
statement is primitive when compared wi
theory, but is quite consistent with it.
The distinction between physical and
necessary part of any theory of art,
Wordsworth conceive of the imaginatio
mere pleasure-giving faculty; but rathe
having a function in the discovery of tru
third point of similarity in the two p
which, it is agreed, is a necessary p
Wordsworth states that the poet has a 'po
thinks and feels . . . without immediate e
for Wordsworth one element of control is to be found within the
poet himself, in his ability to understand and to organize his feelings
for their expression in poetry. Coleridge believes that control is
derived from external as well as internal sources. The poet's
imagination, 'while it blends and harmonizes the natural and the
artificial, still subordinates art to nature' - so 'nature', or physical
reality, becomes the second element of control, ensuring that the
poet, even when indulging in fantasy, will always keep a firm grasp
on truth.

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 38 THEORIA

Wordsworth al
Immediately f
states:

But whatever portion of this faculty we may suppose even the greatest
Poet to possess, there cannot be a doubt that the language which it will
suggest to him, must often, in liveliness and truth, fall short of that
which is uttered by men in real life, under the actual pressure of those
passions, certain shadows of which the Poet thus produces, or feels to
be produced, in himself.39

Wordsworth is trying to suggest a truth standard which is, in some

sense, similar to Coleridge's assertion that art is subordinate to
nature. But Wordsworth has not said it very well, confusing the
truth standard with the matter of poetic diction. Poetic diction is not
unrelated to external reality, but Wordsworth has rather introduced
the matter out of context and in a statement that will not bear
examination.
Both Wordsworth and Coleridge believe that poetry establishes
its importance by dealing with the truth. For Wordsworth nothing is
so trivial or commonplace that it cannot be a stimulus for the mind,
although poetry always deals with 'Important Subjects'. Coleridge
is, however, reluctant to include the commonplace in the realm of
poetry. Misquoting Aristotle, he asserts that 'poetry as poetry is
essentially ideal', 'an involution of the universal in the individual'.40
Certain of Wordsworth's poems, he suggests, meet these
requirements: The Brothers and Michael , for example. But other
poems do not, in particular those poems which deal with exclusively
rustic interests and occupations. This is because the farmer's
interests are with farming and facts, while the poet must seek to
discover and express connections between things, from which some
general law is deductible. It is, of course Wordsworth's aim to go
beyond farming and facts and to demonstrate the indwelling law'.
He does not, of course, always succeed but often does; and
Coleridge is usually unstinting in his praise of Wordsworth's moral
insights.
Coleridge concentrates, in his criticism, on 'objective' criteria,
criteria intrinsic to the work itself; but because organic
compositions are subject to the laws of nature and of experience,
they must also express principles of moral value. For Coleridge,
Shakespeare's moral greatness is inseparable from the dramatic text
and he believes that Wordsworth is, like Shakespeare, a
'philosopher poet' and awaits with anticipation the publication of
Wordsworth's 'great philosophical poem', The Recluse (which was
not completed and which did not live up to Coleridge's
expectations). When Wordsworth reaches heights of moral
grandeur in his poetry, Coleridge is ecstatic:

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PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS' 39

It was the union of deep feeling with pro

balance of truth in observing, with the imagin
the objects observed; and above all the orig
tone, the atmosphere , and with it the dep
world around forms, incidents and situations
view, custom had bedimmed all the lustre
and the dew drops.41

Coleridge believes that Wordsworth's pr

and his later preoccupation with himself
moral integrity. He deplores Wordsw
expressive poetic mode because he feels t
interfere with his moral judgement:
I am startled by instances of self-involution
trembled lest a film should arise, and thicken

A poet who is trying to understand and

not being self-indulgent - if he is, he w
poetry. On the contrary, moral judgement
to an expressive theory of poetry. It
Wordsworth is never entirely express
concerns is the effect of his poetry upon h
will be in some degree enlightened and
strengthened and purified.43
Coleridge's assessment of Wordsworth's
his remarks about the 1815 edition of W
Wordsworth', he notes, 'has . . . degraded this prefatory
disquisition to the end of his second volume, to be read or not at the
reader's choice'.44 Happily, Coleridge says, Wordsworth's theories
were not allowed to interfere with his practice:
And I reflect with delight how little a mere theory, though one of his
own workmanship, interferes with the processes of genuine
imagination in a man of true poetic genius who possesses, as Mr
Wordsworth, if ever man did, most assuredly does possess,
'The vision and the faculty divine'.45

In fact, most of the original Lyrical Ballads do reflect Wordsworth's

theory. They describe incidents from ordinary life, written in a
natural language; the colouring of the imagination is thrown over
these everyday incidents so that unusual aspects are isolated; the
primary laws of human nature are traced; the significance of the
memories of childhood are shown; all men are seen to have,
essentially, similar habits of mind; and the use of artificiality for its
own sake is studiously avoided. Wordsworth's later poems are no
longer 'lyrical ballads' and the Preface, though it is not without
relevance to most of Wordsworth's poetry, cannot in fairness be
used to criticise late poems.

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 40 THEORIA

The original
dramatic tech
Wordsworth h
attempted to
Coleridge, in
remarked that in The Thorn Wordsworth became 'dull and
garrulous', in The Idiot Boy he became idiotic, and in The Sailor s
Mother ht adopted perfectly rustic speech. Now, in order to suit his
present argument, Coleridge quotes from the second edition and
later poems (when the experiment is over and a new poetic is
emerging, one that has to do with Wordsworth's interest in himself)
and even quotes from poems that are not 'lyrical ballads'. The
poems that Coleridge quotes from are: The Rainbow (1802), Lucy
Gray (1800), Idle Shepherd Boys (1800), The Blind Highland Boy
(1807), Ruth (1800), There was a Boy (1800), Song at the Feast of
Brougham Castle (1807), Joanna (1800), and The Excursion (1815).
Not one of the poems, which are quoted to illustrate the
distinctiveness of Wordsworth's style rather than the subjugation of
his personal style in favour of the rustic idiom, is an original 'lyrical
ballad'.
Coleridge argues that Wordsworth uses polysyllabic words which
are not used in ordinary conversation, and moreover, Wordsworth
does heighten his diction.48 Coleridge mentions, for example,
'concourse wild' in There was a Boy. Other examples include: 'The
thrush is busy in the wood' (a description of a bird singing); 'Both
earth and sky keep jubilee' (a beautiful May day); 'That uncertain
heaven received into the bosombf the steady lake' (the reflection of
sky in a lake). In short, Coleridge concludes:
were there excluded from Mr Wordsworth's poetic compositions all
that a literal (my italics) adherence to the theory of his preface would
exclude, two-thirds at least of the marked beauties of his poetry must
be erased.49

Writing to R.P. Gillies, Wordsworth remarks that when discussing

poetic style 'the word "artificially" begs the question'50 for quite
obviously, a poem is an artefact. Wordsworth's objection is to
conventional poeticisms, to artificiality for its own sake as inorganic
ornament. The descriptions quoted by Coleridge are not
incompatible with Wordsworth's theory. Nowhere in the Preface
does Wordsworth state that the language of poetry must be
unmetaphorical. On the contrary, he insists that it be 'alive with
figures and metaphors'. The words themselves of the descriptions
above: 'busy', 'jubilee', 'uncertain', 'heaven', 'bosom', 'steady',
etc. are, unlike 'reddening Phoebus', not a specialized language of
poets, they are current in everyday usage, and Wordsworth has
demonstrated their abundant suitability for poetic use.

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PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS' 41

Coleridge's criticism of Wordsworth's di

more to the point if he had looked at the w
itself works, why it seems so simple yet p
Wordsworth's diction which, if seen in iso
elevated is, in context, a perfect mode fo
poetry interchanges literal and figurative pla
The main points of Coleridge's criticism o
theory can be briefly summarized. Colerid
rustics have the monopoly of 'the real lang
to Wordsworth's assertion that metre is 'supe
creation of poetry. He objects to Wordswor
poetry is the spontaneous overflow of pow
issue with Wordsworth's theory of poetic
poetic diction is necessarily a heightened form
'lingua communis'. Furthermore, a poet is
men', but an imaginative and intellectual g
suggests that Wordsworth does not follow
creation of his poetry.
Most of these objections are irrelevant bec
out, Coleridge has either misunderstood W
has ignored the context. One of the most d
Coleridge's Wordsworthian criticism
Coleridge's extreme literal-mindedness. H
Wordsworth's arguments to their bare logical
into account the spirit in which the argumen
does not attempt to understand what Wor
apparent overstatement, instead he is over-
and phrases, especially the more controve
contexts and thus to criticise them on unfair
ignores the numerous qualifications that
nearly every statement he makes, and the res
this lends to many of his arguments. W
arguing at a higher level, say, about some
Wordsworth's expressive theory, but always a
level of sense and nonsense.
Although Coleridge admits that the Preface was a 'half-child of
(his) own brain', the overriding impression conveyed by the
Biographia is that Coleridge would like to disown any part he may
have played in its conception. He makes repeated attempts to point
out Wordsworth's foolishness and naivety. But the Lyrical Ballads ,
including its Preface, is the product of the collaboration between
both Wordsworth and Coleridge. George Whalley, in his essay 'The
Integrity of the Biographia Literaria ' points out that the integral
structure of the Biographia is centred, not on Coleridge's own
work, but on Wordsworth's; and the central paradox of the
Biographia is that the account of Coleridge's literary development

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 42 THEORIA

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NOTES

1. S.T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria: or Biographical Sketches of My Literary

Life and Opinions , G. Watson (ed), (London: Dent, 1977), p. 199. Hereafter
referred toasB.L.
2. Miriam Allott (ed), Matthew Arnold: Selected Poems and Prose, (London: Dent,
1978), p. 236.
3. Irving Babbit, Rousseau and Romanticism , (Boston: Bell, 1919), p. 155.
4. Herbert Read, Wordsworth: The Clark Lectures , 1929-1930 , (London: Cape,
1930), p. 196.
5. B.L., p. 247.
6. Ibid., d. 188.
7. Ibid., p. 190.
8. D.J. Énright and Ernst De Chickera (eds), English Critical Texts , (Cape Town:
O.U.P. , 1979), p. 162. This contains the text of the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads ,
hereafter referred to as L. B.
9. M.H. Abrams, The Mirror and The Lamp: Romantic Theory and The Critical
Tradition , (London: O.U.P. , 1980), p. 110.
10. L.B., p. 164.
11. See W.J.B. Owen and Jane Worthington Smyser (eds), The Prose Works of
William Wordsworth , (Oxford: Clarendon, 1974), I, pp. 118-131.

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 PREFACE TO 'LYRICAL BALLADS' 43

12. W.J.B. Owen, Wordsworth as Critic , (Toronto:

13. B.L., p. 198.
14. L.B., p. 164.
15. Ibid.. d. 167.
16. B.L. d. 201.
17. Quoted in H.W. Garrod, Wordsworth : Lectures and Essays , (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1963), pp. 163-164.
18. L.B., p. 169.
19. B.L., p. 222. Coleridge's phrase is reminiscent of Wordsworth's 'gaudiness and
inane phraseology'.
20. Ibid., d. 223.
21. Ibid., p. 223.
22. L.B., p. 180.
23. B.L.,p. 228.
24. Ibid.. d. 173.
25. Ibid., p. 206.
26. R.G. Collinewood, The Principles of Art, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1938), d. 121.
27. L.B.,pp. 178-9.
28. Ibid., p. 180.
29. 5.L., p. 207.
30. Ibid., p. 207.
31. Ibid., p. 199.
32. L.B., p. 165.
33. £.L.,p. 174.
34. L.5., D.171.
35. F.R. Leavis, 'Reality and Sincerity', in A Selection From 'Scrutiny', (Cambridge:
C.U.P., 1968), I, p. 252.
36. Ibid., p. 253.
37. L.B., p. 171.
38. B. L., pp. 173-174.
39. L.S., p. 172.
40. B.L.,p. 192.
41. Ibid., DD. 48-49.
42. E. L. Griggs (ed), Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1962), II, 1013.
43. L.B.yp. 166.
44. B.L., p. 170.
45. Ibid., p. 202.
46. See S.M. Parrish, 'Dramatic Technique in the Lyrical Ballads', ( PMLA , lxxiv,
959), pp. 85-97.
47. B.L. , pp. 192-194.
48. Ibid., p. 233.
49. Ibid., p. 236.
50. E. de Selincourt (ed) The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The
Middle Years, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1939), II, 555.
51. George Whalley, Essays and Studies, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1953), p. 153.
52. B.L. , pp. 168-169.

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