Lyrical Ballads With Other Poems, 1800, vol 1

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1800 Vol. I., by William Wordsworth
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Wordsworth
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Title: Lyrical Ballads, With Other Poems, 1800, Vol. I.
Author: William Wordsworth
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8905]
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[This file was first posted on August
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYRICAL
BALLADS, VOL. I ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Robert Prince and the DP Team
LYRICAL BALLADS,
WITH OTHER POEMS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
1800
By W. WORDSWORTH.
Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum!
VOL. I.
SECOND EDITION.
CONTENTS.
Expostulation and Reply
The Tables turned; an Evening Scene, on
the same subject
Animal Tranquillity and Decay, a Sketch
The
Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman
The Last of the Flock
Lines
left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree which stands near the Lake of
Esthwaite
The Foster-Mother's Tale
Goody Blake and Harry Gill

The Thorn
We are Seven
Anecdote for Fathers
Lines written at a
small distance from my House and sent me by my
little Boy to the Person to whom they are addressed The Female
Vagrant
The Dungeon
Simon Lee, the old Huntsman
Lines
written in early Spring
The Nightingale, written in April, 1798.

Lines written when sailing in a Boat at Evening
Lines written near
Richmond, upon the Thames
The Idiot Boy
Love
The Mad

Mother
The Ancient Mariner
Lines written above Tintern Abbey
PREFACE.
The First Volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general
perusal. It 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.
I had formed no very inaccurate estimate of the probable effect of those
Poems: I flattered myself that they who should be pleased with them
would read them with more than common pleasure: and on the other
hand I was well aware that by those who should dislike them they
would be read with more than common dislike. The result has differed
from my expectation in this only, that I have pleased a greater number,
than I ventured to hope I should please.
For the sake of variety and from a consciousness of my own weakness I
was induced to request the assistance of a Friend, who furnished me
with the Poems of the ANCIENT MARINER, the
FOSTER-MOTHER'S TALE, the NIGHTINGALE, the DUNGEON,
and the Poem entitled LOVE. I should not, however, have requested
this assistance, had I not believed that the poems of my Friend would in
a great measure have the same tendency as my own, and that, though
there would be found a difference, there would be found no
discordance in the colours of our style; as our opinions on the subject
of poetry do almost entirely coincide.
Several of my Friends are anxious for the success of these Poems from
a belief, that if the views, with which they were composed, were indeed
realized, a class of Poetry would be produced, well adapted to interest
mankind permanently, and not unimportant in the multiplicity and in
the quality of its moral relations: and on this account they have advised
me to prefix a systematic defence of the theory, upon which the poems
were written. But I was unwilling to undertake the task, because I knew
that on this occasion the Reader would look coldly upon my arguments,

since I might be suspected of having been principally influenced by the
selfish and foolish hope of reasoning him into an approbation of these
particular Poems: and I was still more unwilling to undertake the task,
because adequately to display my opinions and fully to enforce my
arguments would require a space wholly disproportionate to the nature
of a preface. For to treat the subject with the clearness and coherence,
of which I