Preface to Lyrical Ballads

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Notes on the Preface to the Second Edition of Lyrical Ballads Crisis of authority / Poetry / Science / Ways of Knowing / Mirrors / Objectivity / Transparency The first paragraph states that Lyrical Ballads was published as, “an experiment, which, I hoped, might be of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart.” There are a couple of things to notice here. First, the use of the word, “experiment,” announces a comparison of the work of the poet to the work of the scientist,” which Wordsworth recurs to at some length on page 488. Poetry and science are both ways of getting at truth. The truth of science is a truth about particular things and their relation to other things. The truth of poetry, says Wordsworth, is the “is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science.” (page 487) He goes on to say, “Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge—it is as immortal as the heart of man. If the labours of Men of science should ever create any material revolution, direct or indirect, in our condition, and in the impressions which we habitually receive, the Poet will sleep then no more than at present; he will be ready to follow the steps of the Man of science, not only in those general indirect effects, but he will be at his side, carrying sensation into the midst of the objects of the science itself.” In other words, science can (and did) make an atomic bomb by studying the relations between atoms on the atomic level. However, poetry can attempt to describe how we think and feel about the atomic bomb—what the atomic bomb means, which science does not do. Our textbook notes in a
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