Want to know more about the similarities and differences between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth and their works? This essay example is here to help you out! Keep reading to get some ideas for your Wordsworth and Coleridge comparison paper.
Wordsworth
In this review, we are going to discuss Wordsworthâs analysis of Lyrical ballads. Wordsworth is a famous English poet whom together with Samuel Taylor helped shape Romantic poems in English literature. According to Booker (45), âHis poem âMagnum opus is the one referred to as the Prelude, a poem which he wrote in his early years and revised several times.â The first publication of lyrical ballads was 1798, while its edition came two years later. The reason for the second edition was due to the demand by people to know exactly what the poets were implying, whether there was a hypothesis behind its writing.
Coleridge
Among the two authors of the poem, Coleridge was more critical and philosophical and I think he should have been the one writing the prelude. In the preface, Wordsworth gives a new meaning to nature and poetry along appearance perspectives. He disregards the idea that poetry is meant to please the audience and imitate actions but rather regards it as a form of expression of the poet as a result of his interactions with the world. However, this does not mean that Wordsworth has neglected the elements of imitation, teaching and entertainment in poetry but analyses them from different perspectives.
Critical review
Romantics
Wordsworth is one of the proponents of Romanticism in poetry. This includes considering individual feelings, internal experiences, nature and religion of the poet. Wordsworth advocated that poetry should be articulated in a simple language that can easily be understood by men. As an example, he wrote poems using an ordinary language yet his poetry is good. He made poets to break away from established rules of poetry and instead follow their inner feelings and experiences in order to speak for the ordinary people (Booker, 646).
Wordsworthâs regards poetry as a natural spill over of powerful feelings. This means bringing out to the environment what is internally felt by the poet. His poems on nature have less emphasis on nature, but rather concentrate on the feelings of the poet as he thinks about nature. In a sample of his descriptive poems, he emphasizes that, feeling give more meaning to actions and not actions to feelings, thereby, implying that feelings determine actions. Aristotle does not agree with this statement as can be seen from the example he gave about the plot and character. According to Aristotle, âthe plot was more important than character.â But with Wordsworth, he could have proposed that character was more important than plot because he emphasizes that the feelings of a poet is the one that matters (Kirsch, 102).
Self expression
According to Wordsworth, self expression alone is not a factor but a means that enables one get what is permanent and universal. Some poets these days believe that self expression is an end in itself, because they believe all they got to do is to express them. Wordsworth uses self expression to extract eternal truth which distinguishes Romantics from modern poets. This is a generalization that a poet speaks for all the people when he speaks. In other words, Wordsworth meant that expressing his own subjective experience and putting it on paper, he thought he was expressing what all men feel. According to Wordsworth, Dorothy (66) âthis is why Wordsworth believes that his self expression is linked to eternal âunchangingnessâ of his home district.â The difference between modern poetry and the original romantic poetry is seen from this argument.
When Wordsworth wrote his poems, he used the setting of his district and the simple lives of his people to write the essay. Wordsworth advocated for real language to be used in poetry by which he meant simple and unsophisticated language that could be easily understood by people but it had to be purified. Wordsworth and other Romantics redefined poetry because they brought in the fact that if you understood the poem, then you understood the poet. That is, poetry is to be written in a simple language of human beings and the poet to be a speaker to men, and that the poet should be viewed as a man but with some little difference in degree (Wordsworth, 211).
All the poems used in the preface have a purpose. The purpose is meant to inform the audience of how feeling and ideas are related to the state of excitement. The language used illustrates the reactions of the mind when irritated by major and minor affections of nature. An element that distinguishes these poems from poems of the day is that they give emphasis to action and situation. To support this argument, the following verse of the poem from London genre can be supportive, by William Blake
âI wandered through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every infantâs cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
How the chimney-sweeperâs cry
Every blackening church appalls,
And the hapless soldierâs sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlotâs curse
Blasts the new-born infantâs tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.â
Wordsworth gives poetry a new philosophical meaning unlike it was in 18th century. He warned against threats of urbanization and industrialization because it made people develop ignoring attitudes after unusual events. He felt the idea of people going to cities was unnatural and that it suppressed the soul. He argues that minds of people who go to the cities become dull and they often need violent stimulants to bring back their low psyches which Wordsworth refers to as spiritual deadness. He sees people in the city walking and they are quite insensitive and cut off (Hermione, 44).
Wordsworth work
Mimetic theory
Although his theory of poetry emphasizes on expression of the poet, mimetic elements are present in his proposals. Wordsworth often wrote poems about rural or country areas due to the fact that people in these areas were in touch with basic life and lasting truths. It was this natural lifestyle, uninterrupted environment that he wanted to capture in his work. His main aim was to include a life of experience in the poems because he argued out that country life was more natural and was in touch with something that last forever. In the countryside, changes are very slow compared to the city and Wordsworth said that romantics like things stay the same not because they are conservative but due to the fact that they want to get things that are unmediated, that are direct and true.
According to him, this kind of lifestyle can only be found in the countryside. He and other romantics considered the life in urban areas as something artificial and out of touch with human experiences. Jean Rousseau agrees with this argument because he believes that genuine life is only found in rural areas. Wordsworth was looking for a free lifestyle, which he believed was found in the countryside and for real passion and truth. According to Wordsworth Dorothy (55), âWordsworth, Sydney and Aristotle agreed that poetry has got a lot to do with philosophy than history because it deals with facts and general truths which is an important aspect of this discussion.â
Example
In the modern world, Louis, says that children spent most of their time watching TV, listening to rock music playing computer games and watching violent and sex movies. He says that this is one of the worst habits of the modern time because it destroys the soul and mind. Their heads are bombarded by these things to an extent that they canât appreciate small or subtle things in life. It also happens to adults who spent their time reading newspapers which impart sensationalism in them. According to Wordsworth, poetry and poems has the ability to bring back our sensitivity thereby, making it possible to restore humanity in us. He argues that poetry helps us remember our child experiences, appreciate nature and relax our souls.
Works cited
Booker, Edith. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New Yolk: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.
Hermione, Lee. “Strange Fits of Passion,” New York Times,  1999, Web.
Kirsch, Adam. “Strange Fits of Passion,” The New Yorker, 2005, Web.
Wordsworth, Dorothy. “Grasmere Journal, 15 April 1802,” Romantic Circles High School, Web.