19 pages 38 minutes read

William Wordsworth

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1800

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

“[…] fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation [...]”


(Page 1)

The quote emphasizes two important things about Wordsworth’s poetry: He uses everyday language adapted to poetic meter and rhythms, and he tries to express the strong emotions of human beings as they react to various life experiences. Moreover, Wordsworth emphasizes the formal aspects of poetry as vehicles of pleasure for the reader.

Quotation Mark Icon

“[…] if the views with which [the poems] were composed were indeed realized, a class of Poetry would be produced, well adapted to interest mankind permanently […]”


(Page 1)

Wordsworth argues that his method of writing poetry can become the basis of a new style that would be permanently popular with audiences. He hopes not only to write interesting poetry but in some measure to change the face of poetry itself.

Quotation Mark Icon

“The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect […]”


(Page 3)

Reemphasizing his practice of using everyday language in his poems, Wordsworth states further that he wants to go beyond the mundane by exploiting the realm of the imagination. He wants to present the subjects of his poems, which are ordinary in themselves and often taken from the sights and sounds of nature, in an unusual light that will surprise and stimulate the reader’s mind.

Related Titles

By William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

A Complaint

William Wordsworth

A Complaint

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary

logo

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

William Wordsworth

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

William Wordsworth

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

Daffodils

William Wordsworth

Daffodils

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

William Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

Tintern Abbey

William Wordsworth

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

London, 1802

William Wordsworth

London, 1802

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary

logo

Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth

Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

William Wordsworth

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways

William Wordsworth

She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

She Was a Phantom of Delight

William Wordsworth

She Was a Phantom of Delight

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary

logo

The Prelude

William Wordsworth

The Prelude

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

The Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth

The Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

The World Is Too Much with Us

William Wordsworth

The World Is Too Much with Us

William Wordsworth

Study Guide

logo

To the Skylark

William Wordsworth

To the Skylark

William Wordsworth

Plot Summary

logo

We Are Seven

William Wordsworth

We Are Seven

William Wordsworth