Preface to the Lyrical Ballads as the Manifesto of Romantic

Abstract

Without any shadow of doubt, William Wordsworth occupies a towering and prominent place among the Romantic poets. Wordsworth’s contribution to the development of romantic poetry is such that he has been hailed as the priest of Nature. In his work, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, which he produced in collaboration with S.T. Coleridge in 1798, he advocates his own theory of poetry, the function of a poet, and last, but not the least, his conception of poetic-diction. Wordsworth strongly favours simple language that is used by the common people living in the lap of Nature. That is why, Wordsworth selects his subject matters from common life, and farmers, peasants, shepherds, and fishermen are at the centre of his poetry.