1. Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Bioagraphia Literaria, Defence of Poetry
LITERARY CRITICISM
Preface to Lyrical Ballads,
Bioagraphia Literaria,
Defence of Poetry

2. Wordsworth’s view of poetry
Wordsworth deals with situations and incidents from common life
He describes ordinary things as if they were unusual
Coleridge makes supernatural events real with the use of imagination
This happens through the ‘suspension of disbelief’.

3. Poetic form
Poetry is seen as the spontaneous and genuine expression of the poet’s subjective emotion.
The Solitary Reaper, Daffodils and She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways (by W.Worthword)
The ballad is rediscovered and looked at as the best form poetry to deal with the supernatural and the unknown.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (by S.T.Coleridge)

4. Purpose of poetry
It expresses the poet’s emotions and it reveals the inner reality of things lying behind their outer appearance.
How?
Through the power of imagination which colours and interprets events.

5. The language of poetry
In Wordsworth’s poems the language seems simple because he uses words from rural life, and humble characters. However, his poems have a strong symbolic meaning.
On the contrary Coleridge uses archaic terms and exotic settings and characters to create a supernatural and symbolic atmosphere in his poems.

6. Themes Nature because it is helpful to look inside the self.
Memory because it relives the emotions experienced in the past.

7. A Defence of Poetry, 1821
‘the mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence,like an incostant wind,awakes to transitory brightness ;this power arises grom whitin’(Shelley) The poet considers himself an independent creative genius.

8. Poetic form The most important form of poetry is the ode We can quote:
Ode to the West Wind (by P.B.Shelly)

9. Purpose of poetry Express the poet’s emotion
‘Make immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world’.
Record the best and happiest moments of the mind.

10. The language of poetry
The language is highly figurative and it is caracterized by a strong pathos, invocations and mythological references.

11. Themes
nature as a symbol of political ideas or philosopical issues.