What style of language does Wordsworth advocate for poetry in his preface to “Lyrical Ballads” ?
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Answer: D. Common, everyday language
Explanation
Wordsworth advocated passionately for utilizing the real language of ordinary people in poetry. His manifesto rejected artificial neoclassical poetic diction in favor of natural human speech. Everyday vocabulary allowed poetry to connect deeply with genuine emotional human experiences. Lyrical Ballads was published jointly by Wordsworth and Coleridge in seventeen ninety-eight. Romantic poets sought to democratize literature by focusing on rustic subjects and common speech. The preface serves as a foundational theoretical document for English romantic literary criticism.
Romanticism marked a revolutionary shift away from elite, highly ornate eighteenth-century poetic styles. Poetry about humble rural life resonated with emerging democratic ideals across Europe. Modern creative writing workshops still debate the merits of accessible versus ornate language. Typical fanciful poetic diction was precisely what Wordsworth argued against in his preface. Ancient languages were valued by scholars but rejected as the primary medium for modern poetry. Complicated language runs counter to his mission of writing in the simple voice of rustics.
- Subject
- English
- Category
- English Literature
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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