AUDIO BOOKS
Wordsworth says in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads that "Poetry is the most philosophic of all writing......its object is truth, not individual and local, but general and universal." It embodies truth which is its own testimony. "Poetry is the image of man and nature." The poet looks at the world in the spirit of love and beauty. The poet recognizes the grand elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives and moves." So Wordsworth holds that "Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science." The objects of the poet's thoughts are everywhere covering the vast empire of human society. As a result, the reader of poetry must necessarily be in some degree enlightened, and his affections strengthened enlightened, and his affections strengthened and purified. Wordsworth puts a question to himself : What is a poet? Then he replies: "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 be common among mankind". All these specialties of the poet pass into his poetry. Thus poetry humanises mankind. The poet is chiefly distinguished from other men by a great promptness to think and feel without immediate external excitement, and a greater power in expressing such thoughts and feelings.
AUDIO BOOKS
Wordsworth says in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads that "Poetry is the most philosophic of all writing......its object is truth, not individual and local, but general and universal." It embodies truth which is its own testimony. "Poetry is the image of man and nature." The poet looks at the world in the spirit of love and beauty. The poet recognizes the grand elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives and moves." So Wordsworth holds that "Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science." The objects of the poet's thoughts are everywhere covering the vast empire of human society. As a result, the reader of poetry must necessarily be in some degree enlightened, and his affections strengthened enlightened, and his affections strengthened and purified. Wordsworth puts a question to himself : What is a poet? Then he replies: "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 be common among mankind". All these specialties of the poet pass into his poetry. Thus poetry humanises mankind. The poet is chiefly distinguished from other men by a great promptness to think and feel without immediate external excitement, and a greater power in expressing such thoughts and feelings.
AUDIO BOOKS
Thus "poetry is the first and last of all knowledge - it is as immortal as the heart of man."