Lyrical Ballads 1798
/ 2008-06-25 00:00:00
EBOOK LYRICAL BALLADS 1798 ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram and PG Distributed Proofreaders
LYRICAL BALLADS,
WITH A FEW OTHER POEMS.
LONDON
PRINTED FOR J. & A. ARCH, GRACECHURCH-STREET.
1798
ADVERTISEMENT.
It is the honourable characteristic of Poetry that its materials are to
be found in every subject which can interest the human mind. The
evidence of this fact is to be sought, not in the writings of Critics,
but in those of Poets themselves.
The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments.
They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language
of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to
the purposes of poetic pleasure. Readers accustomed to the gaudiness and
inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they persist in reading
this book to its conclusion, will perhaps frequently have to struggle
with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for
poetry, and will be induced to enquire by what species of courtesy these
attempts can be permitted to assume that title. It is desirable that
such readers, for their own sakes, should not suffer the solitary word
Poetry, a word of very disputed meaning, to stand in the way of their
gratification; but that, while they are perusing this book, they should
ask themselves if it contains a natural delineation of human passions,
human characters, and human incidents; and if the answer be favourable
to the author's wishes, that they should consent to be pleased in spite
of that most dreadful enemy to our pleasures, our own pre-established
codes of decision.
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