Who Is A Poet 2p3341

Who is a poet? Wordsworth’s conception of a poet is an important part of his theory of poetry presented in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In the preface, Wordsworth discusses the definition, qualities and function of a poet. Wordsworth defines a poet in the following lines: He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to common among mankind. From these lines and from the text we can identify the following qualifications of a poet. A poet is a simple man like other common human beings. This concept actually revolts against the 18th century glorification of a poet as somebody separate and different from other human beings. However, a poet is not ‘‘different in kind from other man, but only in degree.’’ He has some extra qualities. A poet is a man possessing a higher sensibility than others. It helps him observe and feel things more deeply than others can. By this he reacts more powerfully to the external impressions. The poet’s enthusiasm, intense and keen, takes deep pleasure in the knowledge of the oneness of nature and man. The poet having ‘a more comprehensive soul’ shares the feelings and emotional reactions of other people accurately. He can express them ever without feeling them directly. The poet’s imaginative power is greater than average human beings. By this, he can be “affected by absent things, as if they were present.’’ The poet is not only a man who has a lively sensibility, but one “who has thought long deep.’’

The poet is not a social instrument but an individual “pleased with his own ions and volitions.’’ He is not a mere copier, but a creator. Sensibility becomes more important than rationality. The end of the poet to write poetry is to give pleasure with a purpose of enlightening and purifying which is not formally conceived. A poet is also a teacher. Wordsworth in a letter expressed his view-“every great poet is a teacher; I wish either to be considered as a teacher or as nothing.’’ However, pleasure is an essential condition of poetic teaching. Here we see that Wordsworth is close to the doctrine of Horace. Poet Wordsworth defines the poet a man of more comprehensive soul. The poet is different from other man, because he has a more lively sensibility. And his emotions and ions are more enthusiastic, tenderer and more powerful. He has a greater knowledge of human nature. The poet is a man speaking to men. But the poet is not only a social instrument but an individual, pleased with his own ions and volitions. The poet has a greater degree of imaginative power than other men, a power of looking from heaven to earth and earth to heaven. The insight of the poet is higher than other people. That is why, a poet can create new ideas and present them to us with images and symbols. The poet’s curiosity and interest in life is intense. Therefore, the poet depicts human life in different ways. His responsibility is great because, what other people can’t think or see, he is to present the incredible and invisible images to the readers. Other people also feel and think that but they don’t have the diversity of their sense perception as the poet has, that is why, the poet’s soul is very powerful and creative. The poet must have the knowledge of human life and human society because his main study is man society. The poet seeks the truth about life and nature . His main purpose is to give pleasure by painting out the different branches of knowledge of this vast universe. The poet creates characters and the characters are the spokesmen of his ideas. Wordsworth’s idea about the poet is romantic ad democratic. He says that the poet shouldn’t live in a lofty height. Rather he must be one of the common human beings. He should feel what others feel and accordingly he should describe the common feelings and ions. Like the scientist or any other creative man the poet rejoices over his own invention because the purpose of all inventions and discoveries is to give pleasure. The poet also describes the real incidents that we are facing daily. Moreover, by the power of his creative imagination, the poet creates significant images to sharp our senses ad sensibilities, and to enhance our knowledge about life. Thus Wordsworth elaborately describes the function of poetry and of the poet in his critical essay Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In both the cases he avoids classical tendencies and adopts romantic attitude.

he Definition of the Poet in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

Rukhaya M.K., Yahoo Contributor Network Dec 6, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo websites. Start Here." FlagPost a comment A poet is man "of more than unusual organic sensibility." But he is also a man of thought. His feelings are modified by his thoughts, he is able to connect one thought with another, and in this way to discover what is really important and worthwhile. Wordsworth's conception of the poet is essentially a man speaking to men. Secondly, he is a man who has a more lively sensibility. Thirdly, he has a greater imagination and therefore can feel or react emotionally to events and incidents which he ash not directly experienced. He is "affected by absent things as if they were present". Fourthly, he has a greater knowledge of the human soul and therefore comprehends the nature of ions that he has not experienced directly. Fifthly, he has a more comprehensive soul. Sixthly, he has a grater zest for life than an ordinary individual. He is man who has more pleasure in communicating joy to others. And lastly he is a man who has a greater power of expression and communication. This power results from having a more lively sensibility and is increased by constant practice. J.C Garrod says that as he writes, the poet relives through the whole experience once again in idealized form and the reader of poetry in turn so as he far may lives through the secondary experience of the poet's as he reads.

The poet perceives an organic unity in nature and man. He is a general benefactor, genial friend and companion. H.W.Garrod comments on the poet that the poet thinks and feels in the spirit of human ion. In the spirit of them let there be no mistake, it is vain to think that we think and feel ionately for the purposes of poetic creation.

Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads as a manifesto of Romantic Movement Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads declares the dawn of English Romantic Movement. Wordsworth and Coleridge, with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, break away with the neoclassical tendencies in poetry. As the reading people are not familiar with his new type of poetry, Wordsworth puts forward a preface to this book. In this preface, he tells us about the form and contents of this new type of poetry. Wordsworth, in the beginning, states the necessity of bringing about a revolution in the realm of poetry as the Augustan poetry has become cliché. He painfully notices that the Eighteenth century poets have separated poetry from the grasp of common people. He resolves to liberate

this poetry from the shackles of so- called classical doctrines. He, in collaboration with his friend Coleridge, begins to write poem for the people of all classes. Wordsworth thinks that the language of the Augustan poetry is highly artificial and sophisticated. That is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry. This is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry. This is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry. These attempt chiefly deals with Wordsworth’s views of poetry. Wordsworth thinks that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. To him, the intensity of feelings is more important than the form. To make poetry life like, he wants to use the language of common people as the common people express their feeling unfeignedly. But he tells about a selection, because common people use gross and unrefined language. So, he will purify the language of rustic people until it is ready for use. Wordsworth seems to contradict his own views as he prefers a selection to the original language spoken by the rustic people. T. S. Eliot, in his The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, objects to Wordsworth’s view. Eliot tells that a poet should not imitate the language of a particular class because he ought to have a language of his own. Eliot’s view gains ground as Wordsworth in his later poems, fails to use his prescribed language. His diction is, in fact peculiar to him. But Wordsworth’s definitions of poetry ad the poet are unique. He maintains that poetry is more philosophical than any other branch of knowledge. He likes the poet to a prophet who is endowed with a greater knowledge of life and nature. The neo-classical poets consider the province of poetry to be the world of fictions. But for Wordsworth the province of poetry is the world of truth, not a world of make-believe. Wordsworth like Samuel Johnson believes that only “the manifestations of general truth” can please all people. That is why he rejects the hackneyed poetic style of the Augustan period. Wordsworth differs with the neo-classical writers in his belief about the process of poetry. The neo-classical writers think that the poet’s mind is a sensitive but ive recorder of a natural phenomenon. But Wordsworth strongly opposes this view and thinks that the mind of the poet is never a ive recorder. In his view, the poet’s mind half creates the external world which he perceives. The external world is thus, in some degree, the very creation of human mind. Wordsworth seems to establish the fact that the poet’s mind and the external nature are both interlinked and interdependent. Wordsworth unlike the classicists can not separate the mind which suffers from the mind which composes. Wordsworth points out the common characteristics of both poetry and science. But he places poetry over science for the fact that the large part of poetry is based on imagination. He beautifully discovers that science only appeal to intellect while poetry appeals to heart. For this, the pleasures of science are shared by few while the pleasures of poetry are open to all. Again the truth of science is subject to change while poetry does not suffer from such threat.

Wordsworth breaks with the classical theory of poetry when he advocates for the intensity of emotion. To him, reason is not at all important. This is a subjective view. It cannot be said that Wordsworth is absolutely right in his theory of poetry. But it must be recognized that his views are innovative and creative. His rejection of classical doctrines leads to the creation of a new type of poetry which prefers him emotions to reason. As a result a group of talented poet’s has emerged in the province of English poetry. At the same time, he has contributed to the field of literary criticism. If Blake is considered to be the precursor of romantic poetry, Wordsworth and Coleridge are the two early exponents of romantic poetry. And it is wise of Wordsworth to form a ground for this new poetry through the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.

The poetic process of Wordsworth Wordsworth defines poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’’ and its origin is in “emotion recollected in tranquility.’’ At the first glance, the two contentions may seem contradictory. Because, spontaneity is a forward process while recollection is a backward process. Therefore, how the spontaneous poetry is originated from recollected emotion is a question. There are four stages in the process of poetic creation. These are observation, recollection, contemplation and imaginative excitement. At the first stage, the poet observes some object, situation or phenomena of nature. However, the poetic expression does not take place at that very moment. Rather the observations are stored in the poet’s heart. Next, in moments of tranquility, the poet recollects those emotions excited by the objects, situations or phenomena. Then, he contemplates on these emotions. Consequently, after contemplation, there comes the gradual revival of the “emotion kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation.” Thus the poet is once again in a similar emotional excitement to what he experienced when he first saw the object. Wordsworth says that “in this mood successful composition generally begins.” Thus at the moment of creation, the tranquility is replaced by spontaneous emotional excitement of powerful feelings.

James A.W. Haffernan points out that consciousness has a little part to play at the moment of creation, and the poet should abandon to the resurrected ion. Herbert Read observes, “Good poetry is never an immediate reaction to the provoking cause. Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetry Wordsworth has an exalted conception of poetry. According to him “poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is imioned expression which is in the countenance of all science”. He not only defines poetry; but also explains too the process involved in the production of poetry. His theory of poetry is comprehensive in the sense that it tells us the qualification of the poet, the function of poetry and recommends the language of poetry. This theory is valid because it comes from a poet who practiced it himself in his poetry.

Nature and process of poetry About the nature and process of poetry Wordsworth says “poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; to takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility; the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reactions, the tranquility disappears, an emotion kindred to that which was before the subject of itself actually exit in the mind. In this mood, successful composition begins and in a similar mood it is carried out to be continued”. These famous lines of Wordsworth describe the process, which leads to the production of poetry. First, there is the emotion set up by an experience. Then there is an interval of time, during which the non-essential elements in the experience are purged off. In the second stage, memory plays the important role. It controls what is to be retained and shapes into beautiful forms what it retains. This idea of an interval between experience or observation and composition is an important part of Wordsworth’s theory of poetry. The third stage is recollection, when the experience thus purged is recalled. At the fourth stage, the emotion is gradually set up in the mind again. The last stage is composition. Thus these stages are a. b. c. d.

Sensation Recollection Contemplation Recreation

e. Composition Emotion recollected in tranquility means that poet does not react at an impression immediately. He allows his sense impressions of objects perceived by him to sink into his mind along with the feelings, which it has excited. There they remain buried till their accidental ingredients have been

purged and its ideal and essential truth is left. When later the impression is recalled, the original feeling revived with it. Fundamental condition of Poetry According to Wordsworth, deep emotion is the fundamental condition of poetry. It is the feeling that matters. Wordsworth discards Aristotelian doctrine that the plot, or the situation is the first and most important thing. For Wordsworth the first thing is feeling. It is objected that Wordsworth emphasizes feeling and ignores thoughts, but it is not true. It is true that he attaches great significance to feeling, yet he maintains that valuable poems can only be produced by a man who has thought long deeply. The Function of poetry Wordsworth remarks “The end of poetry is to produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure”. The function of poetry is to offer delight. The poet console afflicted and leads men to virtue. Wordsworth stresses the importance of metre in poetry because it is helpful in achieving poetic pleasure. His Conception of a poet Wordsworth considers poet a seer. He is a man speaking to men, and is different from others in the degree of certain qualities. He is endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, more lively knowledge of human nature, more fertile imagination than common people. The Language of Poetry Wordsworth has romantic and revolutionary views about the language of poetry. He revolts against the artificial language of 18th century. He recommends the ordinary language that is used in daily conservation for poetry. In his view this is more effective. Wordsworth practice of his theory Wordsworth had a practiced approach towards his theory of poetry. He followed to a great extent his theory in his own practice. His poems like, the prelude, the solitary Reaper, the Daffodils etc are based on his theory.

Wordsworth’s Defination of Poet and Poetry Preface as Expressed in his Preface Lyrical Ballads In Preface to Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth expresses his opinion about the function of a poet and the subject matter of poetry. He rejects the classical concept in his attitude towards poet and poetry. He holds a romantic view in both the cases. The Neo- classical poets have expressed their allegiance/ obedience to the classical rules as set

by Aristotle. According to the rules the poets are to depend on reason and arguments. There is no scope for any imaginative expression of feeling and emotion. Therefore, the subjects of the classical poets don’t consent the common human feelings. They are of separate type reflecting only the lives of the Aristocratic people of the society. William Wordsworth has painfully observed this sad picture of English poetry. Therefore he makes an attempt to extend the area of poetry by including subjective elements and describing the natural objects that are contributing silently to our lives and supplying different feelings to our senses and sensibilities. Poetry William Wordsworth says that he has selected incidents and situations of common life. He describes them by selection of incidents and situations of common life. He describes them by selection of language really used by men. In the past this ordinary life of the ordinary people has never been a subject of poetry. For the first time he democratizes poetry and gives a universal appeal to it. People living in the modern cities are very much artificial and far away from the simplicity of nature. Therefore, they don’t express the reality of human life. They suffer from social vanity. Artificiality predominates in them. But the villagers are very simple and free from social vanity. Wordsworth says that in Lyrical Ballads, humble and rustic life has been chosen as the theme of poetry because the essential ions of the heart find a better soul in which they can attain their maturity in the humble state of life. Wordsworth comments that humble and rustic life holds simplicity, serenity and tranquility. The rustic people express their feelings and emotion through simple, unelaborated and unsophisticated way. Their language is more ionate, more vivid and more emphatic. The language of the rustics, according to William Wordsworth is more philosophical and permanent than the language used by the city dwellers and the earlier poets. Poetry should express common human feelings and there should be no restriction in the expression of the experiences of the senses and sensibilities. Wordsworth defines poetry as the spontaneous overflow of the powerful feelings. It is the poet’s business to embody in their poetry the general ions of men. Wordsworth avoids the use of personifications of abstract ideas and serious diction in his poems so far as possible for making poetry intelligible to all types of readers. The language of his poetry is near to that of prose. The incidents of life, the natural objects around us and the common feelings of men as well as our sorrows and happiness, failure and success should get a ready appeal in poetry without false description. Wordsworth says, “Poetry sheds no tears, such as angels weep, but natural and human tears.” Another important idea of Wordsworth about poetry is that the function of poetry is to give pleasure to readers by presenting the incidents and situations of their lives in a fascinating and unusual way with a color of imagination. Therefore Wordsworth agrees with Aristotle, “Poetry is the most philosophical of all writings. The subject of poetry is general and operative truth which is its own testimony.” According to J. C. Smith, an eminent critic, “The nature of poetry will appear more clearly when we have considered its end or purpose, or the function of the poet in a civil society.” Wordsworth establishes a relation between man and nature in his poetry. Therefore he opines that poetry is the image of man and nature. It is an acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe. Poetry, to Wordsworth, is a powerful media of supplying knowledge and pleasure to mankind. He considers that man and nature are essentially adapted to each other. Therefore, man

has emotional, philosophical, moral and spiritual connection to nature. The poet’s business is to describe human life in its very form and to establish a relationship between man and universe. So, Wordsworth says that poetry is the first and last of all knowledge- it is as immortal as the heart of ma. Poet Wordsworth defines the poet a man of more comprehensive soul. The poet is different from other man, because he has a more lively sensibility. And his emotions and ions are more enthusiastic, tenderer and more powerful. He has a greater knowledge of human nature. The poet is a man speaking to men. But the poet is not only a social instrument but an individual, pleased with his own ions and volitions. The poet has a greater degree of imaginative power than other men, a power of looking from heaven to earth and earth to heaven. The insight of the poet is higher than other people. That is why, a poet can create new ideas and present them to us with images and symbols. The poet’s curiosity and interest in life is intense. Therefore, the poet depicts human life in different ways. His responsibility is great because, what other people can’t think or see, he is to present the incredible and invisible images to the readers. Other people also feel and think that but they don’t have the diversity of their sense perception as the poet has, that is why, the poet’s soul is very powerful and creative. The poet must have the knowledge of human life and human society because his main study is man society. The poet seeks the truth about life and nature. His main purpose is to give pleasure by painting out the different branches of knowledge of this vast universe. The poet creates characters and the characters are the spokesmen of his ideas. Wordsworth’s idea about the poet is romantic ad democratic. He says that the poet shouldn’t live in a lofty height. Rather he must be one of the common human beings. He should feel what others feel and accordingly he should describe the common feelings and ions. Like the scientist or any other creative man the poet rejoices over his own invention because the purpose of all inventions and discoveries is to give pleasure. The poet also describes the real incidents that we are facing daily. Moreover, by the power of his creative imagination, the poet creates significant images to sharp our senses ad sensibilities, and to enhance our knowledge about life. Thus Wordsworth elaborately describes the function of poetry and of the poet in his critical essay Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In both the cases he avoids classical tendencies and adopts romantic attitude.

Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetry : The Poet and Poetic Process

Wordsworth’s conception of a poet is an important part of his theory of poetry presented in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In the preface, Wordsworth discusses the definition, qualities and function of a poet. Wordsworth defines a poet in the following lines: He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of

human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to common among mankind. From these lines and from the text we can identify the following qualifications of a poet. A poet is a simple man like other common human beings. This concept actually revolts against the 18th century glorification of a poet as somebody separate and different from other human beings. However, a poet is not ‘‘different in kind from other man, but only in degree.’’ He has some extra qualities. A poet is a man possessing a higher sensibility than others. It helps him observe and feel things more deeply than others can. By this he reacts more powerfully to the external impressions. The poet’s enthusiasm, intense and keen, takes deep pleasure in the knowledge of the oneness of nature and man. The poet having ‘a more comprehensive soul’ shares the feelings and emotional reactions of other people accurately. He can express them ever without feeling them directly. The poet’s imaginative power is greater than average human beings. By this, he can be “affected by absent things, as if they were present.’’ The poet is not only a man who has a lively sensibility, but one “who has thought long deep.’’ The poet is not a social instrument but an individual “pleased with his own ions and volitions.’’ He is not a mere copier, but a creator. Sensibility becomes more important than rationality. The end of the poet to write poetry is to give pleasure with a purpose of enlightening and purifying which is not formally conceived. A poet is also a teacher. Wordsworth in a letter expressed his view-“every great poet is a teacher; I wish either to be considered as a teacher or as nothing.’’ However, pleasure is an essential condition of poetic teaching. Here we see that Wordsworth is close to the doctrine of Horace.

The poetic process of Wordsworth Wordsworth defines poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’’ and its origin is in “emotion recollected in tranquility.’’ At the first glance, the two contentions may seem contradictory. Because, spontaneity is a forward process while recollection is a backward process. Therefore, how the spontaneous poetry is originated from recollected emotion is a question. There are four stages in the process of poetic creation. These are observation, recollection, contemplation and imaginative excitement. At the first stage, the poet observes some object, situation or phenomena of nature. However, the poetic expression does not take place at that very moment. Rather the observations are stored in the poet’s heart. Next, in moments of tranquility, the poet recollects those emotions excited by the objects, situations or phenomena. Then, he contemplates on these emotions. Consequently, after contemplation, there comes the gradual revival of the “emotion kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation.” Thus the poet is once again in a similar emotional excitement to what he experienced when he first saw the object. Wordsworth says that “in this mood successful composition generally begins.” Thus at the moment of creation, the tranquility is replaced by spontaneous emotional excitement of powerful feelings. James A.W. Haffernan points out that consciousness has a little part to play at the moment of creation, and the poet should abandon to the resurrected ion. Herbert Read observes, “Good poetry is never an immediate reaction to the provoking cause.” i