The Preface in the end is a long justification for the writing of many of Wordsworth and Coleridge's poems that prefaces his poetry. It is my opinion that the Preface would have been better served by being placed after the poems as an Afterword instead. An old professor of mine once told me that, "If you have to argue for the merits of your essau as an intellectual exercise before the writing of the work, you probably need a new topic." While the same does not exactly apply here, the general idea does. Wordsworth and Coelridge should have trusted their work to explain itself, and then offered an explanation after the works. By placing The Preface as a Preface, I think it undermines their work as a whole.
EDIT: Changed the title from Prelude to Preface. I've been reading The Prelude, and had a bit of a Freudian Slip in the title.
I couldn't agree with you more. I think their audience would have thought differently about their work if the preface had been afterword. I feel like they would have liked it better.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. I think their audience would have thought differently about their work if the preface had been afterword. I feel like they would have liked it better.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. I think their audience would have thought differently about their work if the preface had been afterword. I feel like they would have liked it better.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! Not only did it alert the audience to the flaws of the poem, but it welcomes critique because if the author is doing it, surely I can as well, right? I really like your professor for saying that. Isn't it totally against the "art for art's sake" arguement that we had in class a few weeks ago?
ReplyDeleteI really wanted to leave a different comment and argue the opposite side but really it's a fabulous point. If you have to explain your poems then maybe you need to rethink your writing. Though for a modern audience maybe having a preface would be a good thing. It would have never occurred to me that Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was about slavery until Dr. Porter pointed it out!
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