Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Q.) Write a critical note on Wordsworth’s view of poetic diction.
Ans.) Wordsworth asserts in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads that he aimed to create a test for a new kind of poetry. He revolted against the “gaudiness and inane phraseology ” which, according to him, infested the poetry written by the C18th poets. In re-action against the poetic diction of the neo-classical poets, Wordsworth propounded his own theory of language for poetry.
He aimed to enlarge the scope of poetic language while, at the same time, removing some of the rigid artificialities which had come to be associated with poetic language. He intended his Lyrical Ballads to be an “experiment to ascertain how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the 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 (= inform).” Indeed, no part of the Preface has met with so much of adverse criticism is due to misunderstanding, which results from Wordsworth’s inept (= incompetent) argumentation and faulty expression of new ideas.
According to Wordsworth, “Poets do not write for poets alone, but for men”. It is thus necessary for the poet to write in a language easily intelligible by people in general, and not live by one another’s “tricks, quaintnesses, hieroglyphics and enigmas”. He advocates the adoption of ordinary and common subjects for poetry, which can be made unusual by throwing “over them a colouring of imagination”. He aimed at tracing “the primary laws of our nature, chiefly as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement”. To illustrate such human laws, humble and rustic life was generally chosen; and a number of reasons are given for the choice:
(i) In that condition of life, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain maturity.
(ii) These passions are under lesser restraint, and more emphatically expressed.
(iii) In that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity.
(iv) The passions of men are incorporated (= included) with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.
(v) The manners of rural life germinate from elementary feelings, and from the necessary character of rural occupations, which are more easily comprehended and are more durable.
Wordsworth has chosen the language of the humble and rustic men because such men “hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best of language is originally derived; and because their rank in society and the sameness and the narrow circle of their intercourse bring less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions”. Such a language, concludes Wordsworth, is more permanent, and far more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by poets, because it arises out of repeated experience and regular feelings. He also stipulates (= instructs) that the language be purified of its defects, and the lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust. Thus the language would be a selection. It would
(2)
apparently be made free of coarseness, vulgarity and disgusting aspects, in order that it may give pleasure.
Besides, Wordsworth instructs that stereotyped and mechanical phraseology must be avoided. Thus, “personifications of abstractions, elaborate figure of speech, periphrasis, etc. should not be used in poetry without due cause”.
Wordsworth’s theory of the language of poetry was strongly criticized by Coleridge. Coleridge attacks the theory on a number of points:
i) He finds fault with Wordsworth’s view that a selection of the language has to be made. A language so selected and purified, according to Coleridge, would differ in no way from the language of any other man of common sense. The selection would ensure that there is no difference between the rustic language and the language of other men.
ii) He attacks Wordsworth’s defense of metre. Wordsworth’s contention (= argument) that there is no essential difference between the language of prose and poetical composition. Coleridge cites Wordsworth’s own poetry to show that the language of prose and poetry differ. The use of metre would firmly ensure the difference between the language of poetry and prose.
iii) Coleridge disagrees with Wordsworth’s manner of defending metre in poetry. Metre is as artificial as the use of “poetic diction”. If the one is allowed, it is not reasonable to reject the other. Both can be sources of poetic pleasure.
iv) The term “real” as used by Wordsworth, is questioned by Coleridge. He says that “every man’s language varies, according to the extent of his knowledge, the activities of his faculties, and the depth or quickness of his feelings”. For “real”, therefore, we must substitute, “ordinary” or “lingua communis”.
v) Coleridge further objected to Wordsworth’s contention that the best part of language arises out of communion with nature. But Coleridge comments that “it would be an act of retrogression rather than progression, if we were to adopt the language of the rustics”.
Wordsworth’s theory of language has weakness, but its value is not to be underestimated. It did a great deal towards lending an ease and simplicity to the language. It did away with (= destroyed) the necessity of using in poetry, words, such as “the main” (= great in size) and “the shining leather which encased the limb” for “the sea” and “the shoe” respectively. It is true that he does not say clearly what he meant by language. Nor does he see the full effect upon diction by the employment of nature. His presentation is not clear enough to avoid misunderstanding; and in his desire to do away with (= destroy) the “inane and gaudy phraseology” of the C18th. It was his desire to show that poetry and its subject as well as language was universal; he insists on the “humble and rustic” life to show this universality.
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