Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The Preface And All Its Feelings
In my group on Tuesday, we were talking about whether The Preface helped or hindered the interpretation of Wordsworth's poems. One of my group members said he was working far too hard to explain himself and why he chose the subject matter and form for his poetry in Lyrical Ballads. As much as I love Wordsworth's poetry, The Preface does seem to be a little much. It is an interesting read, despite the fact that you have to use a bulldozer to dig for the meaning of it all. By taking the time to explain himself in such a long way, Wordsworth sort of takes away the audience's own interpretation of Lyrical Ballads and forces his intentions down their throats. I love art and literature because it allows a spectator of reader to develop their own individual understanding of it. Wordsworth was a great poet, but he needed to chill out, step back, and let his poetry speak for itself.
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One approach that I've taken towards his Preface is to view it as its own entity, rather than a supplement to the other works in the collection. You said it yourself when you mentioned the depth of meaning within it - there is no adequate way for Wordsworth to fully explain himself, seeing as we now have explanations for his explanations.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I felt that The Preface completely violated the accepted openness that is poetry and that it communicates Wordsworth lack of faith in his audience. Or perhaps a lack of faith in his own work? If he felt he had conveyed his message well enough, then perhaps he wouldn't have felt the need to include the preface. I guess I just find it interesting that Wordsworth says that poetry reaches more people than prose and that it is able to convey more emotion/passions, but he still didn't feel like it was enough. Interesting.
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