Wordsworth's famous preface has been described as the manifesto of the Romantic Theory of Poetry. Explaining the elements of novelty found in the poems, Wordsworth maintains that stress is given to the choice of rustic life and the use of the rustic idiom. Besides these, there are other traits hardly found in the poems of his predecessors. He points out that all the poems in the volume are with a distinct purpose. Even though poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings the purpose of poetry can never be denied. The feelings and emotions are modified and directed by thoughts that ultimately lead to enlightenment. Yet another remarkable feature of these poems is that 'personification of abstract ideas rarely occur in these volumes'.
Such anaemic personifications are generally rejected. Besides, the Augustan practice of using a highly stylized and polished diction has been rejected. This has been done with the intention of bringing the language closer to the natural speech of men and thereby diverting it of all artificiality. In other words, Wordsworth and Coleridge have been very careful to keep out the conventional poetic diction, patronized by the Augustans before them.