Preface to the Lyrical Ballads - Wikipedia





	
	

	
	

	Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

	
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		The preface to the Lyrical Ballads is an essay, composed by William Wordsworth, for the second edition (published in January 1801, and often referred to as the "1800 Edition") of the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, and then greatly expanded in the third edition of 1802. It has come to be seen as a de facto manifesto of the Romantic movement.

The four guidelines of the manifesto include:


	Ordinary life is the best subject for poetry. (Wordsworth uses common man's language.)
	Everyday language is best suited for poetry
	Expression of feeling is more important than action or plot
	"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of emotion" that "takes its origin from emotion, recollected in tranquility." - William Wordsworth


External links[edit]

		Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Preface to The Lyrical Ballads



	Preface to Lyrical Ballads 1802


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William Wordsworth

	Topics	
	Early life
	Lake Poets




	Lyrical Ballads	
	Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
	"Anecdote for Fathers"
	"The Idiot Boy"
	"Lucy Gray"
	The Lucy poems
	"She dwelt among the untrodden ways"
	"A slumber did my spirit seal"
	"Strange fits of passion have I known"
	"Three years she grew in sun and shower"


	The Matthew poems
	"Michael, a Pastoral"
	Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey
	"Poor Susan"
	"We Are Seven"




	Later poetry	
	Poems, in Two Volumes
	Peter Bell
	The White Doe of Rylstone
	"Composed upon Westminster Bridge"
	"Elegiac Stanzas"
	"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
	The Lucy poems
	"I travelled among unknown men"


	"London, 1802"
	"My Heart Leaps Up"
	"Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
	"Resolution and Independence"
	"The Solitary Reaper"
	"The World Is Too Much with Us"
	"To a Butterfly"
	"Character of the Happy Warrior"




	The Recluse	
	The Excursion
	The Prelude




	Prose	
	Guide to the Lakes




	People	
	Dora Wordsworth (daughter)
	Dorothy Wordsworth (sister)
	Christopher Wordsworth (brother)
	Samuel Taylor Coleridge
	Robert Southey




	Homes	
	Wordsworth House (birthplace and childhood home)
	Alfoxton House (1797-1798)
	Dove Cottage (1799-1808)
	Allan Bank (1808-1811)
	Rydal Mount (1813-1850)




	Related	
	Wordsworth Trust







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		Categories: 	Works by William Wordsworth
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	British poetry
	Essays in literary theory
	1800s essays
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		 This page was last edited on 30 August 2020, at 11:35 (UTC).
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