Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
In an era when poetic formality and intellectual rigor reigned supreme, Wordsworth championed emotion as the true wellspring of poetry. Yet, he also insisted that this emotion be tempered by reflection and shaped by deep thought. The Romantic movement, of which Wordsworth was a pivotal figure, sought to reclaim feeling as essential to human experience, pushing against a backdrop of Enlightenment rationalism.