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Late-Neoclassical Writers
Wordsworth considered the thoughts, feelings, and language of the peasantry to be ideal for poetry. In the Lyrical Ballads, he depicts “low and rustic life” because he believes the thoughts of the peasantry are less restrained, more communicative, more easily comprehended, and more durable “because in that situation the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.” In other words, the thoughts of these working-class peasants are more sincere and pure because they are in daily contact with nature. Furthermore, their language, consisting of “simple and unelaborated expressions,” is also ideal for poetry as “a language arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings is a more permanent and a far more philosophical language” than the artificial language of the late-Neoclassical poets. Wordsworth uses working-class language because it is more in tune with reality and “the sympathies of men.”
The Peasantry Quotes in Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads quotes below are all either spoken by The Peasantry or refer to The Peasantry. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
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The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to make the incidents of common life interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.
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Except in a very few instances the Reader will find no personifications of abstract ideas in these volumes, not that I mean to censure such personifications: they may be well fitted for certain sorts of composition, but in these Poems I propose to myself to imitate, and, as far as possible, to adopt the very language of men, and I do not find that such personifications make any regular or natural part of that language. I wish to keep my Reader in the company of flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him.
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The Peasantry Quotes in Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads quotes below are all either spoken by The Peasantry or refer to The Peasantry. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
Quotes
The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to make the incidents of common life interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Except in a very few instances the Reader will find no personifications of abstract ideas in these volumes, not that I mean to censure such personifications: they may be well fitted for certain sorts of composition, but in these Poems I propose to myself to imitate, and, as far as possible, to adopt the very language of men, and I do not find that such personifications make any regular or natural part of that language. I wish to keep my Reader in the company of flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
