00076--Describe those factors which were responsible for the rise of Romantic Criticism.

            'Love of Liberty' is ingrained in the English temperament.    Hence it is that the English could not servilely follow for any length of time the neo-classical rules.  Englishmen are too individualistic for any slavish imitation.  An under-current of liberalism is noticeable even at the time when neo-classicism was at its height.

            This temperamental leaning towards liberalism was fed and nourished by Longinus whose essay, 'On the sublime', had been translated into French towards the close of the 17^th century and was widely read in English.  His emphasis on 'transport' and enthusiasm had a far reaching impact both on creative and critical literature.  The French Revolution and the American War of Independence fostered the spirit of free thinking.  Love of political independence led to the rise of the spirit of free enquiry.  The pseudo-classical rules were questioned and their limitations exposed.  Writers liked to create unhampered by rules and conventions.  The critics liked to judge according to their own light.

            The medievalisation movement about the middle of the 18^th century, led to a revival of interest in old English masters.  There was also the growth of a new historical out look following the publication of Gibbson's monumental work, 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'.  Literature-ancient, medieval and modern-was viewed as a whole.  This enlarged the horizon and widened the outlook.  The rise of romantic criticism was also helped by the Reviews.  The Reviewers judged works of literature on the basis f their own likes and dislikes, and not on the basis of rules.  No doubt, much of their criticism is prejudiced, but they paved the way for the rise of impressionism and individualism which is the keynote of romantic criticism.

            Increasingly 'men of genius' like 'Wordsworth and Coleridge', voiced their protest against Neo-classicism and through their critical pronouncements laid the foundations of romantic criticism.  They gave a definite programme and consciousness to the romantic movement.

            Thus under the superficial claim of the 18^th century, new forces were brewing, an under-current of change was flowing, which burst into life with the publication of Wordsworth's preface to the Lyrical Ballads.  Hence it is true to say, as Atkins points put, that the foundations of 19^th century criticism were laid in the 18^th century. 

00073--Describe William Wordsworth's concept of Imagination and Fancy.

William Wordsworth

                                                                       

            Imagination and fancy differ in kind.  These are activities of two different kinds.  Fancy is not a creative power at all.  It only combines what it perceives into beautiful shapes, but like the imagination it does not fuse and unify.  The difference between the two is the same as the difference between a mechanical mixture and a chemical compound.  In a mechanical mixture a number of ingredients are brought together.  They are mixed up, but they do not lose their individual properties.  They still exist as separate identities.  In a chemical compound, on the other hand, the different ingredients combine to form something new.  The different ingredients no longer exist as separate identities.  They lose their respective properties and fuse together to create something new and entirely different.  A compound is an act of creation while a mixture is merely a bringing together of a number of separate elements.

            This imagination creates new shapes and forms of beauty by fusing and unifying the different impressions it receives from the external world.  Fancy is not creative.  It is a kind of memory; it arbitrarily brings together images, and even when brought together, they continue to retain their separate and individual properties.  They receive no colouring or modification from the mind.  It is merely mechanical juxtaposition, and not a chemical fusion.

00067--'Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science." Discuss. OR Discuss Wordsworth's views on the University of poetry and to moral force.

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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.
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            Thus "poetry is the first and last of all knowledge - it is as immortal as the heart of man."

00066--What is the function of Poetry according to Wordsworth?

00065--The Distinctive Features of the Poems in the Lyrical Ballads.

            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.

00064--On what grounds does Wordsworth condemn the use Poetic Diction in poetry?

            Poetic Diction was a highly artificial, stilted and unnatural mode of writing used by the Neo-classical poets in writing their poetry.  They took pride in using highly obscure, unfamiliar, quaint and high-sounding words and expressions which are hardly ever used in day-to-day life.  By using such words and expressions they sought to show off their highly scholastic status and superiority.  Wordsworth exploded this vanity of the Neo-classicists in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads.  He decries the poets who think that "they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art in proportions as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression."

            Explaining his point of view, Wordsworth says that poets do not write for poets alone, but for men.  A poet must express himself as other men express themselves.  The poet should imitate, and as far as possible, adopt the very language of men.  The expressions used in Poetic Diction do not make any natural or regular part of that language.  A poet must bring his language as far as possible near to the language of men.  There neither is, nor can ever be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.

            The language of a large portion of every good poem in no respect differs from that good prose.  Therefore Poetic Diction is cumbersome artifice which must be abandoned.

00063--Words worth Says: "There neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition." Comment on this statement.

            In the preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote that "There neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition".  This statement of Wordsworth was actually, a reply to the advocates of Poetic Diction, according to whom the language of poetry was basically different from that of prose.  All the Neo-classical poets were advocates of Poetic Diction.  Poetic Diction was an assemblage of highly archaic, obscure and stilted words which were not used in normal life.  Referring to that type of language used by poets, Wordsworth says, "Some Poets think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression".

            Refuting this concept Wordsworth chose incidents, and situations from common life, and related or described them in a selection of language really used by men.  The language of these men was adopted by him because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived.  Defending his concept, Wordsworth says, "The language of a large portion of every good poem, except with reference to the metre, in no respect differs from that of good prose when prose is well written."  The poet thinks and feels in the spirit of human passions.  How, then, can his language differ in any material degree from that of all other men who feel vividly and see clearly?  He must express himself as other men express themselves.  Wordsworth endeavoured to bring his language near to the real language of men.  As such there is no essential difference between the language of poetry and prose.  Summing up his views, Wordsworth says,  "Whether the composition be in prose or in verse, they require an exact one and the same language."

00062--Discuss Wordsworth's views on the language (diction) in which poetry should be written.

In the preface to the Lyrical ballads Wordsworth says that principally the subject matter of his poetry was the life, manners, interests and occupations of the rustics and common men of rural background because they were a part of nature.  Consequently, he tried to write his poetry in the language really used by them.  So Wordsworth writes in the preface: "The principal object proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men."  The language of these men had been adopted because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived.  Such a language, he holds "is a more permanent and a far more philosophical language". 

            

 However, as a precautionary measure Wordsworth says that the language of the common men would, of course, be "purified from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust".  Wordsworth totally rejected the use of "poetic diction".  He believes that the best of poems can be written in the normal language of a common man.  He says, "Except for the difference of metre, the language of poetry would in no respect differ from that of good prose".  On the contrary, "some of the most interesting parts of the best poems will be found to be strictly in the language of prose when prose is well written".  A large portion of the language of every good poem can in no respect differ from that of a good prose.  So Wordsworth concludes, "it may be safely affirmed that there neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and that of metrical composition."

00061--Why does Wordsworth choose the life of rustics and common men for the subject of his poetry?

                                                                                       

                                          In the preface to the 'Lyirical Ballads' Wordsworth says that the life of the rustics and common men is the fittest subject for poetry.  This concept is just contrary to the concept of Neo-classical poets who chose the life and manners and morals of the urban people, specially of the aristocratic class, to be the fittest subject for poetry.  Pope's Rape of the Lock is the best example of this class of poetry.  Against this concept, Wordsworth chose the life of humble and rustic people for the subject of his poetry.  Wordsworth was basically a poet of Nature, and he considered the humble and innocent villagers to be a part of Nature.

            He writes, Humble and rustic life was generally chosen because in that condition, "the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and from the necessary character of rural occupations the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature".

            On the same ground, Wordsworth also decried the fashion of writing poetry in the poetic diction patronized by the Neo-classical poets.  He not only chose the life of the rural folk for his subject, but also their language for writing his poetry.  He writes, "The language, too, of these men has been adopted because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived".  But in spite of all these considerations Wordsworth remains fully conscious that his poetry may not sink to the level of triviality and meanness.

00060-- Give Wordsworth's definition of Poetry. How would you reconcile the two apparent contradictions in it?

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            In the preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth defines poetry thus:  "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."  In this definition of poetry there are two apparent contradictions.  The "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" on one side and "emotion recollected in tranquility" on the other side are apparently two contradictory statements.  "Spontaneous overflow" must be immediate and unrestricted without any interval of time between feeling and its expression.  

The expression "recollected in tranquility" would suggest intervention of time between feeling and its expression.  "Recollection" means remembering some impression after some lapse of time.  Wordsworth himself has tried to reconcile this apparent  contradiction in his further elucidation of his definition.  Immediate impression has a blending of both important and unimportant impressions.  When they are allowed to rest for sometime, only the important impressions remain in the memory, and the unimportant ones wash away.  The poet would then express those powerful impressions spontaneously with ease and felicity without any imposition of restriction in point of language or poetic diction.  The poet's expression of those powerful feelings must be easy, smooth and natural.

00059--Wordsworth lays down the basic tenets of his poetry in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads. Discuss.

            When the first edition of Wordworth's Lyrical Ballads was published, it was discovered that Wordsworth's poems were diametrically opposite to the standard poetical norms as preached and practiced by the Neo-classical poets like Ben Jonson, Dryden, Pope, Gray and Dr. Johnson.  There was a sort of uproar in literary circles.  Thereupon some of Wordsworth's friends advised him to publish a detailed preface to the second Edition of his Lyrical ballads explaining the basic tenets of his poetry.  Wordsworth says, "they have  advised me to prefix a systematic defence of the theory upon which the poems were written".  Here he published a detailed preface to the second edition of his Lyrical Ballads. 

            In the preface Wordsworth begins with the precept that poetry should be a 'spontaneous overflow' of powerful feelings, not a laboured exercise.  Secondly, the subject matter of poetry should be the life of the common men, because poets do not write their poetry for poets only, but for the common public to read and enjoy.  For the same reason, poetry should be written, as far as possible, in the language of the common men, and not in the highly artificial and stilted poetic diction.  There should be no difference between the language of prose and that of poetry.  These are the basic tenets of Wordsworth's theory of poetry.