223

THOMAS CARLYLE, 1795-1881
The Hero as Poet. Dante; Shakespeare. (1840) 254

JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT, 1784-1859
An Answer to the Question: What is Poetry? (1844) 300

MATTHEW ARNOLD, 1822-1888
The Choice of Subjects in Poetry. (1853) 356

JOHN RUSKIN, 1819-1900
Of the Pathetic Fallacy. (1856) 378

JOHN STUART MILL, 1806-1873
Thoughts on Poetry and its Varieties. (1833, revised 1859) 398

WALTER BAGEHOT, 1826-1877
Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning; or, Pure, Ornate and
Grotesque Art in English Poetry. (1864) 430

WALTER HORATIO PATER, 1839-1894
Coleridge's Writings. (1866) 492

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1803-1882
Shakespeare; or, the Poet. (1850) 535

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 1819-1891
Wordsworth. (1875) 558

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

1770-1850

POETRY AND POETIC DICTION

[Preface to the Second Edition of _Lyrical Ballads_, 1800]

The first Volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general
perusal. It was published, as an experiment, which, I hoped, might be
of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement
a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation,
that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted,
which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart.

I had formed no very inaccurate estimate of the probable effect of
those Poems: I flattered myself that they who should be pleased with
them would read them with more than common pleasure: and, on the other
hand, I was well aware, that by those who should dislike them, they
would be read with more than common dislike. The result has differed
from my expectation in this only, that a greater number have been
pleased than I ventured to hope I should please.

* * * * *

Several of my Friends are anxious for the success of these Poems, from
a belief, that, if the views with which they were composed were
indeed realized, a class of Poetry would be produced, well adapted to
interest mankind permanently, and not unimportant in the quality, and
in the multiplicity of its moral relations: and on this account they
have advised me to prefix a systematic defence of the theory upon
which the Poems were written. But I was unwilli