Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter vi humble and rustic life poetic diction it will be remembered that in planning the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads, the two poets agreed that Coleridge should "devote his endeavors to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic," while Wordsworth was to choose such characters and incidents as may be found in almost every village. In accordance with this agreement, all of Wordsworth's contributions to the volume, with the one notable exception of the Lines Above Tintern Abbey, were on common or humble themes. Up to this time he does not seem to have considered the lives of humble folk an inviting subject for poetry. Neither in An Evening Walk nor in the Descriptive Sketches does he give more than incidental notice to persons; and when they are mentioned they are introduced chiefly to give more animation to his narrative. He says himself in The Prelude that up to his twenty-second year man was entirely subordinate to nature in his thought. In his Hawkshead days though "Shepherds were the men that pleased me most," they pleased him not for their own sake, but because they seemed almost identified with the forms of Nature. The mountain shepherd, seen against the sky on a distant hillside, was A solitary object and sublime, ... and serenest solitude Had more commanding looks when he was there. A variety of reasons doubtless influenced him, more or less consciously in this preference. His own failure in The Borderers had probably convinced him of his inability in the portrayal of violent passions or romantic adventure. The disappointment of his revolutionary hopes had quickened rather than depressed his human sympathies; if he had less confidence in any wide revolutionary movements, he had a warmer feeling for the
