Wordsworth vs. Coleridge

A Romantic Face-off

 

      Coleridge          wordsworth

 

 

 

 

Wordsworth	Coleridge
Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802	Biographia Literaria. 1817
Common or rustic scenes would be understandable to all readers.	Nature and scenes of common life close to nature were fitting subjects of poetry
Since rustic life had a closeness with nature, images from rustic life would be well suited for illustrating nature’s fundamental substance— “Low and rustic life was generally chosen…because in that condition of life our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated” (1343).	Good poetry could not be wholly written in natural, everyday language. Since the goal of poetry was to strongly affect the emotions of the reader, a poet had to use words more artfully than an everyday person would, and therefore poetic language could never be identical to common language.
Along with his use of common scenes in poetry, Wordsworth preferred to use common language in his verses. The language of common or rural people was by necessity well suited to portraying nature in poetry. Since common people had regular firsthand interaction with nature, and since nature played such an important role in their lives, their language is constructed to convey the emotions associated with nature. “The language, too, of these men is adopted ... because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived” (1343).	Common language was not the best language for poetry, and that the best parts of language resulted from educated reflection rather than a familiarity with simple and natural things. The best part of human language, properly so called, is derived from reflection on the acts of the mind itself” (1548).
The goal of poetry was to influence the emotions of the reader. Feeling is as much an integral part of consciousness as reason, and that feeling, not reason, is the dominant language of the soul. By distilling an emotion into verse and creating an impression of that feeling in the reader, a poet was communicating with the reader’s soul rather than just his or her rational mind.	There is no true common language, but that language varies from person to person, even within classes. The universal concepts of language, however, were common to all classes and not exclusive to the lower and rural classes.