Lyrical Ballads

The first edition of Lyrical Ballads, by Wordsworth and Coleridge, was published in 1798. The idea was to write a new kind of poetry, which could be read and understood by everybody. It was here that Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey first appeared. These poems remain among the most famous and best loved of the poets work.

Both poets feared that readers might find their poems too experimental and that critics would disapprove of them. Coleridge even went so far as to say: 'Wordsworth's name is nothing, to a large number of persons mine stinks!' They were, however, determined to publish and the book appeared in September 1798 but without their names on the title page. Their fears were not entirely unfounded, readers did find the style and subject matter challenging and so, in 1802, Wordsworth wrote the Preface to Lyrical Ballads setting out their aims and ideas.

Key Poems and Ideas

The Title
The two words in the title stem from different traditions in the history of poetry, and have different characteristics. By combining them in the title, Wordsworth and Coleridge indicated that they were involved in a fresh interpretation of old traditions.

Lyric
In ancient Greece, a lyric was a song to accompany music from a lyre (a stringed instrument). Later the word was used for any short poem in which personal moods and emotions were expressed. Nowadays the words of popular songs are called lyrics.

... all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802).

Ballad
A ballad is a poem or song which usually tells a story in the popular language of the day, and has associations with traditional folk culture.

The principal object was to chuse incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used by men. (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802).

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In 1798 this was the opening poem of Lyrical Ballads. It is a supernatural story, with themes including guilt, punishment and redemption, told in short verses with a strong rhythm and rhyme scheme. Many years later, Coleridge explained that the poems in Lyrical Ballads were meant to show human nature under two influences: the supernatural and the ordinary. He also remembered: that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand, was to propose himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to the things of every day.

Michael by William Wordsworth
Although this poem was produced for the 2nd edition of Lyrical Ballads it shares many characteristics with earlier poems. Michael is a tale in blank verse about a Grasmere farmer who loses his son and his land in trying to pay off a debt. In many of his poems for Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth explores the psychological effects of economic, physical and social hardship. In a letter to a politician of the time, he stated it as his intention to show that men who do not wear fine cloaths can feel deeply.

Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
In 1798 this was the final poem in the volume. The poem opens with a personal experience and uses it to explore themes such as Nature, memory, and imagination. These are themes which Wordsworth returns to again and again in his poetry. As with the best of Wordsworth s personal poetry, he moves outwards to include the whole of nature and human nature in his imaginative vision.