WORDSWORTHS

THEORY OF POETRY

 Wordsworth has described the theory of poetry and

his conception of the function of a poet.In his theory
of poetry he set down the origin,nature and purpose
of poetry and the function of the poet in a civil society.

 Wordsworth defines poetry as the spontaneous

overflow of powerful feelings,it takes its origin from
emotions recollected in tranquility,the emotion is
contemplated till the tranquility disappears and an
emotion kindered to that which was before the
subject of contemplation is gradually produced and
does itself actually exist in mind.

THE POETIC PROCESS

Poetry is an overflow of powerful emotions which involves a

reconciliation of opposite powerful emotions and profound
thought.
The sequence of events described in the preface for the
production of poetry is a notable experience,deep and long
contemplation,a period of tranquility,sudden overflow of powerful
feelings as the notable experience is recollected.
Pleasure in the poets pleasurable emotion as the experience is
recaptured and recreated shaping of the poem,hardly touched
on in the preface except as a transition in the pleasure of the
poet pleasure for the reader.

WORDSWORTHS DEFINITION OF
POETRY

Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.This refers to the

nature of poetry.Poetry is a matter of feeling and mood.It flows
from the internal feelings of the poet.
When the poet is in the poetic mood he sings out rapture as
sorrow spontaneously from the core of his heart.
In a poetic mood,poetry flows out naturally from poets heart.In
such moments,his language of discourse becomes the
language poetical inspiration.
Poetry cannot be composed under duressThe clear spring of
poetry must flow freely and spontaneously it cannot be made to
flow through artificially laid pipes.

EXPRESSION OF POWERFUL
FEELINGS
Wordsworth talks of expressing powerful feelings felt in the heart
and not generated in the mind.Poetry takes its birth in the springs
of the heart and not in cold store of the intellect.Poetry is
born,not in the mind,but in the heart overflowing with emotions.
All of us feel,so does the poet,but he feels intensely and
deeply.The poets heart leap up when he beholds a rainbow.
The heightened emotional state of the poet finds expression
through two verses.Thus according to Wordsworth,deep emotion
is the fundamental condition of poetry.It is the feeling that
matters.
He discards the Aristotelian doctrine.For him,the plot or situation
is not the first thing.Wordsworth himself says that The feelings
there in developed gives importance to the action and situation.

Wordsworth told that a poet must be a man possessed of more

than usual organic sensibility.In fact sensibility is the great birth
right of our being.
In the case of ordinary men,it is overpowered by the weight of
custom,whereas in the poet it is augmented and sustained.
That is not all Wordsworth has in mind His poet is not simply a
Man of feelings.feelings of course he must have since poetry is
in fact the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and arise
from the emotions recollected in tranquility.
But before the emotions come the senses and it is not of them
that Wordsworth is thinking when he adds the epithetorganic.

ORGANIC SENSIBILITY
Organic sensibility then means or implies the
capacity to receive impression through senses.
The emotion which accompanied the original
impression revives when the impression is recalled.
The ability thus to reconstruct an emotion belongs in
an eminent degree to the poet,being in fact a portion
of his native endowment more than usual organic
sensibility.

EMOTIONS RECOLLECTED IN
TRANQUILITY

Wordsworth observed that sensibility alone is not sufficient to

ensure good poetry,it must be directed by a calm mind.
He explains the role of calm thinking and deliberate
contemplation in the composition of poetry later on in the
preface when he saysThe emotion is contemplated till by a
species of reaction,the tranquility gradually disappears and an
emotion kindered to that which was before the subject of
contemplation is gradually produced and does itself actually
exist in the mind.
In this mood of successful composition generally begins and in
a mood similar to this it is carried on.The process of poetic
composition is not an easy one.

 Wordsworth has mentioned six causes that lead to

poetic composition.
(i) observation and description
(ii)sensibility
(iii)reflections.
(iv)imagination and fancy
(v)invention
(vi) judgment

FUNCTION OF POETRY
Wordsworth lay emphasize that good poetry is never
an immediate reaction to the proviking cause that our
sensations must be allowed time to back into the
common fund of our experience,there to find their
level and due proportion.
That level is found for them by the mind in the act of
contemplation,the sensations revive and out of the
union of the contemplating mind and the receiving
sensibility rises the unique mood of expression which
we call poetry.

 Wordsworth says that poetry is the breath and finer

spirits of all knowledge;the impassioned expression
that is in the countenance of all sciences.
Wordsworth felt strongly that there was no worthy
pursuit but the idea of doing some good for the world.
He hoped that his poems would separate in then
degree to extend the domain of sensibility for the
delight,the honor and the benefit of human nature.

 He asserted that the poet should console the

afflicted.He should make the happy,happier and
should lead the young and gracious of every age,to
see,to think and to feel.
Such is the poets office and there is none more
exalted.
Poetry is not a mere entertainment,a diversion for a
pations idle hours.
Poetry seeks to enable and edify.

 The poet through his poetry,imparts moral lessons for

the betterment of human life.
Wordsworth says that a poetry of revolt against the
moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life,a poetry
of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of
indifferent towards life.

 Wordsworth subscribes to the view that to the poet

the particular is nothing and the universal everything.
Wordsworth is precise and emphatic in stating that
pleasure is the end of poetry.
the end of poetry is to produce excitement in
coexistence with an over balance of pleasure.
Thus the rehabilitation of pleasure to a primary
position was a major item in the romantic creed which
Wordsworth was out to promulgate.

 Wordsworth proposes to throwa certain coloring of

imagination whereby ordinary things should be
presented to the mind in an unusual aspect few
modern poets have embodied in then work,whether
by statement by implication so firm a sense of the
dignity or worth of the common individual man.

Wordsworth found some meaning in human life,if human beings

lived in close proximity to nature and allowed it would begin its
influence to sink into their soul.he thought that oral elevation
and spiritual edification of man was not possible in the humdrum
life of towns and cities.
Rustic people lead a life of primal simplicity in constant
communication with nature.
He decided to deal with the lives of cadgers and rustic instead
of politicians and statesmen stupefied with victory and in toxified
with glory and power.He refuses to glorify lives of kings and
princes and men belonging to higher strata of society,because
in their lives he found an artificiality that he despised.

He chose rustic life for poetic treatment in that condition of

lifeessential passion of the heart finds a better soil.
He showed much independence of mind as reflecting the
traditional subjects derived by his predecessors fro the
fashionable social life.
By his own temperament he was prone to be attracted by things
of elemental simplicity and necessary Corollary to the choice of
subjects from the low rural life,he decided to use the language
of common people as the vehicle of poetic expression rejecting
the artificial diction of the 18th century.

Wordsworth rejected the guardian and insane phraseology of

many modern writers.He insists that his poems contain little
poetic diction and are written in a selection of the real language
of men in a state of vivid sensation,
Wordsworth defined the employment of meter in poetry as a
protest against the use of poetic dictionwhereas in the matter of
poetic diction,Wordsworth breaks with the orthodox convention
of his days and return to the natural diction of normal men.
In te matter of meter he appeals to the tradition.
The concurring testimony of the ages he says has established
the laws of meter and all reasonable people submit to them and
acknowledge them as superadded charm.

 Wordsworth says that in his poems he has dealt with

great and universal passion of men,the most general
and interesting of their occupations,as the entire
world of nature before him.
He could have written in prose as well but he decided
to write in meter for the sake of charm.
Pleasure is clear from the fact that poems written on
humbler subjects and in more naked and simpler
language have continued to give pleasure from
generation to generation.

While defining the meter the end of poetry is to produce

excitement to coexistence with an overbalance of pleasure.
This excitement is an unusual state of mind.In that state of
excitement,ideas and feelings do not follow each other in the
usual regular order;the expressions of ideas and feelings
appear to be incoherent.
Again if the words by which this excitement is produced are
powerful,then there is some danger that excitement maybe
carried beyond its proper bounds.
Therefore in order to restrain and temper the ideas and feelings
in the state of excitement meter is essential it restrains the
unusual state of mind.

 There are four stages of process of poetic creation.

(i)observation
(ii)recollection
(iii)contemplation
(iv)imaginative excitement
The poet observes certain character,situation or phenomenon of
nature.This observation excites in his certain emotions.He does not give
poetic expression to their immediately but carry them in heart for
sometime.
After the years he recollects these emotions in tranquility,contemplates
upon them and revive his original emotional excitement.
The emotions thus revived are purged of all that was accidental,temporary
and super flows.
Finally this emotional excitement is given poetic expression.This is the
process of poetic creation which gives joy both to the poet and the reader.