Wordsworth Preface:-
1.What is basic difference between the poetic creed of 'Classicism' and 'Romanticism' ?
Classicism and Romanticism are artistic movements that have influenced the literature, art, music, and architecture of the Western world over many centuries. With its origins in the ancient Greek and Roman societies, Classicism defines beauty as that which demonstrates balance and order. Romanticism developed in the 18th century partially as a reaction against the ideals of Classicism — and expresses beauty through imagination and powerful emotions. Although the characteristics of these movements are frequently at odds, both schools of thought continued to influence Western art into the 21st century.
The name "Classical" was given to the Greeks and Romans retroactively by Renaissance writers. Artists and thinkers of the Renaissance, which literally means "rebirth," saw themselves as the heirs of that world following the Middle Ages. Its ideals continued to exert strong influence into the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In literature, Classicism values traditional forms and structures. According to legend,
Roman poet Virgil left orders for his masterpiece The Aeneid to be burned at his death, because a few of its lines were still metrically imperfect. This rather extreme example demonstrates the importance placed on excellence in formal execution. Such attention to detail can also be seen in the work of the Italian poet Dante. Other characteristics of the movement include balance, order, and emotional restraint.
Romanticism may be a somewhat confusing term, since modern English speakers tend to associate the word "romance" with a particular variety of love. As an artistic movement, however, it celebrates all strong emotions, not just feelings of love. In addition to emotion, Romantic artists valued the search for beauty and meaning in all aspects of life. They saw imagination, rather than reason, of emotion is one of the primary ways in which Classicism and Romanticism differ. The Romantics placed a higher value on the expression of strong emotion than on technical perfection. Classicists did not shy away from describing emotionally charged scenes, but typically did so in a more distant manner.
William Shakespeare, writing before the onset of Romanticism, occasionally used deformed characters in his plays,in The Tempest they are used primarily for comedic effect. One well-known example of this character type is Edward Rochester, the love interest in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, who reaches spiritual perfection only after undergoing physical deformation.
2. Why Wordsworth say 'What' is poet? rather than Who is poet?
Wordsworth defines a poet as a man of more comprehensive soul. A poet is different from other men, because he/she has a more lively sensibility. And his emotions and passions are more enthusiastic, tenderer and more powerful. He has a greater knowledge of human nature.
Wordsworth also say that the poet is such a human being who is overall in degree a far better human being than ordinary human being.
He is a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the going-on of the universe, and habitually compelled to create them where he does not find them.
Man speaking to men.
• More lively sensibility.
• Greater imagination. (affected by absent things as if they were present)
• Greater zest for life.
• Greater power of expression and communication.
According to the rules the poets are to depend on reason and arguments. There is no scope for any imaginative expression of feeling and emotion. Therefore, the subjects of the classical poets don’t consent the common human feelings. They are of separate type reflecting only the lives of the Aristocratic people of the society. William Wordsworth has painfully observed this sad picture of English poetry. Therefore he makes an attempt to extend the area of poetry by including subjective elements and describing the natural objects that are contributing silently to our lives and supplying different feelings to our senses and sensibilities.
3.What is poetic diction? Which sort of poetic diction is suggested by Wordsworth in his Preface?
The term diction refers to the kind of words, phrases, sentences, and sometimes figurative language that constitute any work of literature. When it comes to poetry writing, the question related to the diction always arises. The question of diction is considered as primary because the feelings of the poet must be easily conceived by the readers. The poets of all ages have used distinctive poetic diction.
The Neo-classical poetic diction was mainly derived from the classical poets such as Virgil, Spenser, and Milton. These poets used to write poetry by using embellished language and particular decorum. Other prominent features of that period were the extensive use of difficult words, allusions, the personification of abstracts, and avoidance of things considered as low or base. The poetry of that time was treated as something sacred. It was only subjected to the people with high intellect and of high status in the society.
Wordsworth prime concern was to denounce such superficial and over-embellished language. Wordsworth’s aim was to write poetry which symbolizes the life in its simple and rustic state. The poetry, for Wordsworth, must be like the part of daily life speech. It should be written in such language that anyone who wants to read it could comprehend it easily. Wordsworth believes that all such ornamented poetry clocks the genuine and passionate feelings of the poets. He only justifies the use of an embellished language of poetry when it is naturally suggested by the feelings or the subject matter of the poetry. The poetry, for Wordsworth, is the expression of natural feelings and these feelings cannot be communicated with the help of fake and version of upper-class speech but with the actual speech of “humble and rustic life”.
He defines poetic diction as a language of common men. It is not the language of the poet as a class but the language of mankind. It is the simple expression of pure passions by men living close to nature. The poetic language is the natural language; therefore, it must be spontaneous and instinctive. The real poetic diction, in the view of the Wordsworth, is the natural overflow of the feelings, therefore, it is immune to the deliberate decoration of the language.
Wordsworth also attributes the quality of giving pleasure to the natural poetic diction. It must not contain any vulgarity and disgusting element. The poet must, through his language, elevate the nature and human feelings.
4. What is Poetry???:-
Poetry is from the Greek poiein, “to make”: a poem is something made, or in English we would more naturally say crafted
William Wordsworth says that he has selected incidents and situations of common life. He describes them by selection of incidents and situations of common life. He describes them by selection of language really used by men. In the past this ordinary life of the ordinary people has never been a subject of poetry. For the first time he democratizes poetry and gives a universal appeal to it. People living in the modern cities are very much artificial and far away from the simplicity of nature.
Therefore, they don’t express the reality of human life. They suffer from social activities. Artificiality predominates in them. But the in the village they are very simple and free from social activities.Wordsworth says that in Lyrical Ballads, humble and rustic life has been chosen as the theme of poetry because the essential passions of the heart find a better soul in which they can attain their maturity in the humble state of life.Wordsworth comments that humble and rustic life holds simplicity, serenity and tranquility. The rustic people express their feelings and emotion through simple, unelaborated way. Their language is more passionate, more vivid and more emphatic. The language of the rustics, according to William Wordsworth is more philosophical and permanent than the language used by the city dwellers and the earlier poets.
Poetry should express common human feelings and there should be no restriction in the expression of the experiences of the senses and sensibilities. Wordsworth defines poetry as the spontaneous overflow of the powerful feelings. It is the poet’s business to embody in their poetry the general passions of men. Wordsworth avoids the use of personifications of abstract ideas. The language of his poetry is near to that of prose. The incidents of life, the natural objects around us and the common feelings of men as well as our sorrows and happiness, failure and success should get a ready appeal in poetry without false description. Wordsworth says,
"Poetry shades no tears, such as angels weep, but natural and human tears."
Another important idea given by Wordsworth about poetry is that function
of poetry is to give pleasure to readers by presenting the incidents and situations of their lives in a fascinating and unusual way with a color of imagination. Wordsworth also agrees with Aristotle,
"Poetry is the most philosophical of all writings. The subject of poetry is general and operative truth which is its own testimony.”
The poet creates characters and the characters are the spokesmen of his ideas. Wordsworth’s idea about the poet is romantic ad democratic. He says that the poet shouldn’t live in a lofty height. Rather he must be one of the common human beings. He should feel what others feel and accordingly he should describe the common feelings and passions. Like the scientist or any other creative man the poet rejoices over his own invention because the purpose of all inventions and discoveries is to give pleasure. The poet also describes the real incidents that we are facing daily. Moreover, by the power of his creative imagination, the poet creates significant images to sharp our senses ad sensibilities, and to enhance our knowledge about life.
Thus Wordsworth elaborately describes the function of poetry and of the poet in his critical essay Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In both the cases he avoids classical tendencies and adopts romantic attitude.
Most famous Poetry:-
The Tyger by William Blake
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? By William Shakespeare
The Raven By Edger Allan Poe
The Waste Land By T.S.Eliot
Ode to a Nightingal By John Keats.
5. Discuss 'Daffodils- I wandered lonely as a cloud’. With reference to Wordsworth's poetic creed?
William Wordsworth
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth’s literary classic, ‘Daffodils,’ also known as ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,’ is one of the most popular poems in the English language. It is a quintessential poem of the Romantic movement.
Imagination It is a product of his actual visualization. The poet expresses his feelings of solitude by saying ‘ I wandered as a lonely cloud’. The reason behind his feeling of loneliness was the death of a beloved one, his brother. Passing through a field beside the lake, he comes across a cluster of golden daffodils waving in the breeze. Moreover, they were more isolated patch or scattered. They were thousands and thousands in number dancing in the breeze.
Furthermore, the dancing, blinking flowers stretched endlessly along the shore. Also, the shining waves of the lake danced beside the flowers. The daffodils traced the water with their beauty. Moreover, the poet says, the golden daffodils twinkled and stretched in an endless line like the stars in the Milky galaxy way. It implies that the flowers seem heavenly as stars. This made the poet very happy as he has never seen so many daffodils at one sight. He enjoyed the company of flowers.
Furthermore, he keeps on starting that beautiful scene. He couldn’t take off his eyes from the loveliness of daffodils. However, he was unaware of the blessing that the scene would give him. From that time, whenever he felt lonely or depressed, the scene of the beautiful daffodils strike his strikes. Thus, his heart gets filled with immense pleasure and dances with the Daffodils.
The plot is very simple. It depicts the poet’s wandering and his spotting of a field of daffodils by a lake Also, the memory of the daffodils pleasures him and relieves him when he is alone, bored, or suffering from feelings of restlessness. Moreover, the characterization of the surprising happening of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye”, which is “the bliss of solitude”—is psychologically acute, but the poem’s major brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its initial stanzas.
William Wordsworth's poetic diction with reference to preface to the lyrical ballads.
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