Analysing Key Passages: Wordsworth's Preface by Elena Catherine Ohalloran

•Focus on Wordsworth’s arguments for using ordinary language

elenaohalloran — 2024-09-04 18:34:41 UTC

•Focus on the idea that poetry is in the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

elenaohalloran — 2024-09-04 18:35:43 UTC

•Focus on the poet’s role in interpreting and presenting reality through imagination

elenaohalloran — 2024-09-04 18:36:31 UTC

Group 2

2024-09-04 19:08:14 UTC

Emotions in Poetry. The author focuses on the emotions that he has already lived and he is captivated by these ideas. We can see this in page 4 where he describes how his “habit of meditations has prompted and regulated his feelings”. He also states that the “feelings developed gives importance to the action and situation, and not the action and the situation to the feeling”. We can understand by this what he meant when he says that poetry is spontaneous, because for him emotions are spontaneous as well and he uses the simplicity of language to describe feeling, making then more significant poetry.

Wordsworth’s utterly rejects the personification of abstract ideas, wanting to use the very language of men. He continues to justify his lack of style by referring to the use of outrageous stimulation and the magnitud of evil overthinked in the language of new poets.

Aranza and Ali

Group 1

2024-09-04 19:15:25 UTC

Main ideas of Wordsworth of the using of ordinary language:

Writing in vers will confuse or make it more difficult to engaged with the reading to many readers. (pg.2)
Wordsworth talked about common life experiences in his poems by using a selecction type of language commonly use by man, making this way more easier to understand the content of these poems, making the readers to imaginated it. (pg 2-3)
Talking about this kind of topics (incidents of common life, primarly laws of our nature) thought the simplicity of language made it more easier to relate to this kind of emotions.
Distinction in the language because of the social ranking "... from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. " (pg 3)
Poets use more difficult words thinking they would have more permanent influence. (pg 3)
"it is this, that the feeling therein developed gives importance to the action and situation, and not the action and situation to the feeling" (pg 4)

Tamara and Carolina <3

group 3

2024-09-04 19:15:30 UTC

The poets use imagination to reflect emotions and knowledge, unlik the men of science who need to express their knowledge through facts.
Poets express universal truths through emotions and lyrics: this allows them to connect on a different level with the reader.
The author references Aristotle to say that poetry is the most philosophic of all writing
he also signals poetry as "the image of men and nature" (p.9, W.William. 1800.)

Quotations

elenaohalloran — 2024-09-04 19:15:40 UTC

-Spontaneous overflow of feelings: Wordsworth asserts that poetry emerges from the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" but these feelings must be processed through thought and contemplation.

- - "For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." (p. 4)

-Reflection in tranquility: He explains that poetry originates from emotions "recollected in tranquillity," where the poet reflects on past emotions, leading to a controlled, yet powerful, expression of those feelings.

- "I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity." (p. 13)

Pleasure through emotion: Although poetry may depict intense or even painful emotions, Wordsworth stresses that successful poetry should always carry an "overbalance of pleasure."

- "Whatever passions he communicates to his Reader... should always be accompanied with an overbalance of pleasure." (p. 14)

Quotations

elenaohalloran — 2024-09-04 19:17:20 UTC

-Imagination as central to the poet’s role: Wordsworth views the poet as one who interprets reality through imagination, presenting both human experiences and nature in a heightened, insightful manner.

- "... a man speaking to men... who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe." (p. 9)

-Imagination reveals truth: The poet, through imagination, connects with universal truths and emotions, transforming ordinary realities into profound reflections.

- "Poetry is the image of man and nature... its object is truth, not individual and local, but general, and operative." (p. 9)

-Imagination unites humanity and nature: The poet reflects how human beings and nature interact in complex ways, and through imagination, he brings those connections to life for the reader.

man and the objects that surround him as acting and re-acting upon each other... Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge." (pp. 10-11)

Quotations

elenaohalloran — 2024-09-04 19:18:13 UTC

-Ordinary language in poetry: Wordsworth argues that poetry should employ the "language really used by men" instead of relying on artificial, ornate diction.

- The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them... in a selection of language really used by men." (p. 3)

-Rustic life as a source of genuine expression: He emphasises the value of rustic and humble life, where human passions are expressed in a simpler, more direct manner.

- "Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because... the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity." (p. 3)

-Simplicity and universality: Wordsworth believes that this unrefined, genuine language is more permanent and philosophical than the "gaudiness and inane phraseology" of other poets.

- "...such a language... is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by Poets." (p. 3)