162 Second Romantic Period of English Literature. 



has to say is set forth at length m the famous preface of the 1800 

 edition of the Ballads. A very considerable part of this is quoted 

 in the centenary reprint, which I have here with me. Briefly put, 

 he wished (a) to destroy the artificiality of verse-diction, and (b) 

 to lower the scale of subjects deemed worthy of poetical treat- 

 ment. To paraphrase the account given by Coleridge: That 

 summer in which the friends roved 



Upon smooth Qnantock's airy ridge, 



their conversation often turned upon the two cardinal points of 

 poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a 

 faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving 

 the interest of no^■elty — there you have the Romantic character, 

 strangeness — by the modifying colours of imagination. So the 

 thought suggested itself that a series of poems might be composed 

 of two sorts. In the one the incidents and agents were to be 

 supernatural, and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the 

 interesting the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions 

 as would naturally accompany such situations supposing them to 

 be real. For the second class subjects were to be chosen fromj 

 ordinary life : the characters and incidents were to be such asj 

 would be found in every village and its vicinity where there was a 

 meditative and feeling mind to seek after them when they present 

 themselves. Coleridge was to deal with persons and characters 

 supernatural. It was to be the aim of Wordsworth to give the 

 charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling 

 analogous to the supernatural by directing the attention of the] 

 mind to the loveliness and wonders of the world around. And} 

 this was to be done, mark you, in the language of conversation! 

 used by the middle and lower classes of societv. So in Septem- 

 ber, 1798, the little octavo of 210 pages, in paper boards, was! 

 issued from the press of Joseph Cottle, of Bristol. It must be 

 admitted that it did not set the Severn on fire. Reviews began 

 to appear. Southey slated it in the October number of the] 

 "Critical Review," in language of which Jeffrey, of the Edin- 

 burgh, might have been proud. The "Rime of the Ancient] 

 Mariner " came in for special dispraise. " We do not sufficiently 

 understand the story to analyse it. It is a Dutch attempt at 

 German sublimity." The "Monthly Magazine" of December! 



