Preface

I can't decide if Wordsworth's explanations of his poems in the preface are good or not. On one hand, I can see why an author would WANT to explain himself. I think every English lit major can relate to the experience of pulling "symbolism" and meaning out of texts without any evidence whatsoever that the author actually intended any of what we find in literary texts to be there in the first place. Although, if every author explained his or her work, then there probably would be no such thing as a lit major! I think it's more interesting to read a text and create meaning and find symbolism on your own, but if I was an author it would probably drive me crazy when people just came up with wacky theories about what I really meant in my writing. On the other hand, that could be very entertaining.... I just don't know!