A Preface to Lyrical Ballads and As a Romantic Poem The Solitary Reaper by William

Wordsworth

Romanticism is a literary and intellectual movement in Europe that started in the late

decades of the eighteenth century. It was with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 by

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge who gave birth to Romanticism in the

history of English Literature.After that,Wordsworth published the second volume which is

titled Preface to Lyrical Ballads in 1802.It contains Wordsworth’s theory of the romantic

poem, language of the romantic poem and the definition of poet&poem at the end. The

Solitary Reaper which is one of Wordsworth's romantic poems, is an example of ballad.It is

about a girl who is working in a field and at the same time singing a song. The purpose of this

paper is to analyze The Solitary Reaper in terms of the theory of the poem, certain

assumptions on poetry, the role of the poem, and the metrical composition of a romantic poem

that Wordsworth states in A Preface to Lyrical Ballads by giving references from the poem

and A Preface to Lyrical Ballads.

In the A Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth tries to tell his new literary theories

about the romantic poetry in a detail way.He states how to write a romantic poem,objectives

of romantic poetry and the content of it in his work. According to him, romantic poems

should include only common life situations and events.In his essay, he says “ The principal

object, then, which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to chuse incidents and situations

from common life, and to relate or describe them…”.This can be seen in The Solitary

Reaper.Because, there is a girl figure in the field that deals with daily work in this poem.She

is an ordinary girl who lives in a village.After that, Wordsworth continues his argue.He

emphasizes that low and rustic life should be reflected as a setting in a romantic poem unlike

poets who are nonclassical.He says in his essay:” Low and rustic life was generally

chosen…”.It should be like that because it is best way to provide a better understanding on the

reader and to create a relationship between poem and reader.In addition, Wordsworth adds

some new points to his argue that in such poems, a simple language which everyone can

easily understand should be used as in The Solitary Reaper.Because in this mentioned life,

feelings, emotions and thoughts can pass to the other side more quickly and a more sincerely

and at the end a permanent communication and understanding appear. Wordsworth also

Partial preview of the text

Download A Preface to Lyrical Ballads and As a Romantic Poem The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth and more Essays (university) Poetry in PDF only on Docsity!

A Preface to Lyrical Ballads and As a Romantic Poem The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth Romanticism is a literary and intellectual movement in Europe that started in the late decades of the eighteenth century. It was with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge who gave birth to Romanticism in the history of English Literature.After that,Wordsworth published the second volume which is titled Preface to Lyrical Ballads in 1802.It contains Wordsworth’s theory of the romantic poem, language of the romantic poem and the definition of poet&poem at the end. The Solitary Reaper which is one of Wordsworth's romantic poems, is an example of ballad.It is about a girl who is working in a field and at the same time singing a song. The purpose of this paper is to analyze The Solitary Reaper in terms of the theory of the poem, certain assumptions on poetry, the role of the poem, and the metrical composition of a romantic poem that Wordsworth states in A Preface to Lyrical Ballads by giving references from the poem and A Preface to Lyrical Ballads. In the A Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth tries to tell his new literary theories about the romantic poetry in a detail way.He states how to write a romantic poem,objectives of romantic poetry and the content of it in his work. According to him, romantic poems should include only common life situations and events.In his essay, he says “ The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to chuse incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them…”.This can be seen in The Solitary Reaper. Because, there is a girl figure in the field that deals with daily work in this poem.She is an ordinary girl who lives in a village.After that, Wordsworth continues his argue.He emphasizes that low and rustic life should be reflected as a setting in a romantic poem unlike poets who are nonclassical.He says in his essay:” Low and rustic life was generally chosen…”.It should be like that because it is best way to provide a better understanding on the reader and to create a relationship between poem and reader.In addition, Wordsworth adds some new points to his argue that in such poems, a simple language which everyone can easily understand should be used as in The Solitary Reaper. Because in this mentioned life, feelings, emotions and thoughts can pass to the other side more quickly and a more sincerely and at the end a permanent communication and understanding appear. Wordsworth also

draws attention to the fact that some ordinary events or situations in poetry are reflected in the reader as if they were never used to it before.For example, in the poem she is singing a song.Actually it is not an unsual situation but the speaker of the poem stop and listen to her in a motionless position and thinks that she sings beautifully and her voice is overflowing in the vale.In addition to this,the persona makes acomparison the beauty of singing of the young girld and the nintingale which are famous for their singings. “…Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reactions the tranquility disappears, and an emotion kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exit in the mind. In this mood successful composition begins and in a mood similar to this it is carried on.” In Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth tells the process of writing as written above.In the first stanza of The Solitary Reaper , the persona listens her voice and completely focuses on her voice.In second stanza,recollection in tranquility appears,when he listen her voice,he remembers the nintingales and its voice.In the third stanza,the process of contemplation occurs,the persona can not understand what she sings because the girl is singing another language which is the narrator can not speak.Also he wonders the content of the song.According to him,perhaps she is singing about battles at ancient times and unhappy things.In the final stanza,the persona explains why he wrote this poem,because the song is in his heart now he cannot forget it anmymore so he wrote this poem to remember the song and the girl. In conclusion, The Solitary Reaper covers high imagination in common life situations as written in Preface to Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth.In addition, it can be said that the poem completely fits in his definition of good poetry in terms of language,content,certain assumptions on poetry and the role of the poem.

A Preface to Lyrical Ballads and As a Romantic Poem The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth, Essays (university) of Poetry

Related documents

Partial preview of the text

Download A Preface to Lyrical Ballads and As a Romantic Poem The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth and more Essays (university) Poetry in PDF only on Docsity!