...puhlished, as an experiment, which, I hoped, might he of some use to ascertain, how far, hy fitung tc metrical arrangement a selection of the real language...sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may he imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart. I had formed no very inaccurate estimate...

...qu'ajouter la cadence du mètre au langage réel de l'homme parlant dans un état de vive émotion (« by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of...real language of men in a state of vivid sensation »). H suffit au critique de prendre une strophe d'une de ses plus belles ballades, The Affliction...

...perhaps, been known since the period of the Renaissance. In his endeavour to solve the difficulty of ' fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the...real language of men in a state of vivid sensation,' Wordsworth had prepared the way for a natural outburst of poetic feeling, occupied with familiar and...

...nature." Wordsworth discarded, in theory, the poetic diction of his predecessors, and professed to use "a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation." He adopted, he said, the language of men in rustic life, " because such men hourly communicate with...

...poetry. It aimed at being natural, as opposed to the artificial. The authors had endeavoured to fit ' to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation.' One by one, admirers were found, and a new public was created ; and henceforth the growth of the Wordsworthian...

...in deference to the wider view and finer sense of Coleridge), and now says of the former volume that "it was published as an experiment which, I hoped,...metrical arrangement, a selection of the real language of nun in a state of vivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted...

...lower classes of society" (Preface, 1798), or, as he puts it differently two years later, how far " a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation " (Preface, 1800), is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure; secondly (a motive first indicated...

...to a ridiculous extreme of simplicity, according to which the purposes of poetry might be attained "by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of...real language of men in a state of vivid sensation". The sort of language to be selected should be the common-place talk of the lower orders, and not essentially...

...deference to the wider view and finer sense of Colei'idge), and now says of the former volume that " it was published as an experiment which, I hoped,...sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be iinparte'd which a poet may rationally endeavor to impart." * Here is evidence of a retreat towards...

...would afford permanent interest to readers. In the Preface he describes his object to be that of " fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the...real language of men in a state of vivid sensation." This theory of poetry, which Wordsworth appears to have set out with, is happily most thoroughly contradicted...