Wordsworth

Question 1

What are wordsworhts three principles which caused him to write lyrical ballads?

Answer 1

1) poetry must concern itself primarily with nature and country life
2) lyrical ballads emphasise the status of poetry as an art form. Through it he wants to enlighten his readers to the true depths of human emotion and experience
3) good poetry doesn’t need to be highly ornamental to capture the readers imagination. Clean simple lines are the best

Question 2

why did Wordsworth write the preface to lyrical ballads?

Answer 2

in order to defend the unsual style and subject matter of his poetry, some of which are experiments to see how far popular poetry could be used to convey profound feeling

Question 3

why is it important to chose the countryside/ nature as a subject matter?

Answer 3

• people in the countryside use simple language, which the sole aim of expressing meaning
• their habit of speaking comes from associating feelings with permanent forms of nature

Question 4

explain Wordsworth’s goal of emphasising the purpose of poetry as art?

Answer 4

• This is not a moralising purpose, as poetry comes from a spontaneous overflow of feeling
• lyrical ballads have the purpose of enlightening the readers’ understanding of basic human feeling, enhancing reader’s emotions, and helping readers to enjoy the simple things in life
• This is important as many people forget the simple things in life, as they are blinded by the strange and wonderous

Question 5

Wordsworth on style

Answer 5

in order to keep the readers attention, style is essential
poetry should be written as the language of a person who speaks directly to other people, with the same basic feelings and experiences of all human beings

Question 6

role of metre

Answer 6

both cause excitement and regulate excitement

makes a poem alive

Question 7

what are lyrical ballads?

Answer 7

poems that express a domination of feeling (lyricism) over form (ballads)

Question 8

context of the preface

Answer 8

• mass industrialisation/ urbanisation (especially i London). Lots of rural to urban migration
• Neoclassicism was the precursor to romanticism. Known for their adherence to rules, strict definitions
• French rev/ romanticism: desire to shake up the foundations of an old hierarchical structure and challenge accepted notions

Question 9

what is savage torpor

Answer 9

state of mental stagnancy: when your life is so dull and stagnant that you fail to see beauty anymore. Almost in a trace-like state (can be compared to scrolling through insta for hours)

Question 10

What is poetry? (for wordsworth)

Answer 10

• the highly sensitive poet is able to experience the beauty of ordinary life, capture his own emotions as they arise and is able to sit in a calm, peaceful space to use his imagination to recollect these emotions and write about them

Question 11

why is the language of poetry?

Answer 11

‘the real language of men’- ordinary, normal language

Question 12

what is the flaw that Coleridge found with Wordsworth premise of real language of men

Answer 12

• in Biographia Literaria (1817) he suggests that it is NOT the actual WORDS that create confusion, but the syntax
• he also says that tehre is no proof that the language of country folk is richer than that of london (espcially as hsi 2 literary heroes were milton and spenser)

Question 13

what is the egotistical sublime?

Answer 13

• a concept which explains that a poet’s own subjective view of truth and beauty is extremely attached to his work
• The poem they produce are filled with their own imagination and perspective , from THEIR perspective

Question 14

what was Wordsworth’s critical mission?

Answer 14

to return to basic, timeless truths

this makes him turn to questions such as: What is a poet, to whom does he address himself

Question 15

style of wordsworth’s preface

Answer 15

-very hesistant/ experiemental
-frequent use of subjuctive: creates a sense of uncertainty
-

Question 16

what was wordsworth’s problem with Augustan literature

Answer 16

• Heroic couplets: STRONGLY artificial
• personification, especially of natural things
• artificial diction
• allusion to classics

Question 17

What did Wordsworth think of Pope

Answer 17

• he was a sorcerer / a wizzard who could hypnotise people with his heoric couplets

Question 18

how does Wordsworth depict poetry as being a populist form?

Answer 18

• focus on the ‘real’ language of men
• reflects 18th/ early 19th century desire for change/ redistribution/ re-balancing of power
• wants to add democracy to literatrue and valurise ideals that are underthreat

Question 19

contextual point reflecting the political drive of Wordsworth

Answer 19

• as a student Wordsworth was very politically involved (e.g. french rev)
• He wanted to fight injustice with poetry

Question 20

What is usual of Wordsworth’s use of verbs?

Answer 20

he uses verbs such as ‘feel’ intransitively
this means that despite feel usually coming before an adjective (e.g. feel happy/ cold, scared etc), he finishes the sentence at feel

Question 21

What does wordsworth do to metre?

Answer 21

-he places it back into real life:
demonstrates how our conversations are ruled by metre
- uses it to divest (unclothe) words
-gives value to words (e.g. pop music- lyrics silly, but beat good)
-severs the connection between metre and poetic diction

Question 22

Main difference in attitude between Augustans and romantics (especially Wordsworth)

Answer 22

Augustans: inspired by classics/ plato to find the ideal form
Romantics: determined to find the REAL form

Question 23

how does this preface differ to other prefaces of this period?

Answer 23

• most were merely a paragraph/ a few lines

- this was very long and detailed (despite havign been written in just 2 weeks!)

Question 24

problematic aspect of the essay

Answer 24

• for an essay which is so deeply concerned with the universal power/ democratising nature of poetry, there appears to be a very strong focus on Masculinity: ‘man speaking to men’ ‘real language of men’

Question 25

Wordsworth’s theory of primitivism

Answer 25

• metre of poetry is something which drove our actions etc when we were in a primal state, it was the language of passion
• later, it became more diluted/ strained as poetry would write ‘coolly in their closets’ attempting to imitate passion RATHER than express it
• they did this by the use of ‘artificial ornamentation’

Question 26

Wordsworth on habit

Answer 26

• humans find pleasure in habit: ‘we not only wish to be pleased, but to be pleased in that particular way in which we have been accustomed to be pleased
• this is dangerous, as through habit we like Augustan literature, even though it is ‘inferior’ to the real poetry included it lyrical ballads