Freedom and Constraint: The Blank Verse of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads

Authors

  • Laura B. Damone Stanford University

Keywords:

Wordsworth, Meter, Blank Verse, Iambic Pentameter

Abstract

In his preface to the 1800 Edition of Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth argued powerfully that the language of poetry is not, and cannot be, distinct from that of common prose. And yet, while Wordsworth’s choice of vocabulary, tone and subject matter in this collection was prosaic to the point of being revolutionary, one primary distinction between poetry and prose was left untouched: the meter. This paper explores the seeming contradiction between Wordsworth’s assertion in his preface and his strict adherence to the laws of poetic meter within the collection. I argue that this contradiction is intentional, and in proposing it, Wordsworth pushes his reader to adopt a characteristically Romantic vision of the state of humanity and its relationship to poetry: in an industrialized society, our state is one of perpetual tension between the essential and the artificial. It is this dynamic tension between freedom and constraint that metric verse is intended to exemplify. By juxtaposing formal meter with pastoral subjects and plain language, Wordsworth engages in a democratization of the verse form, expanding the boundaries of what constitutes a poem. In doing so, he also forces the poetry-consuming class to reach beyond themselves and their positions—to slow their pace and to consider the places, people and things that they see but never notice. 

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Author Biography

Laura B. Damone, Stanford University

Laura B. Damone is a writer, logic teacher, curriculum developer, and second-year MLA student at Stanford University. She lives on a farm with her husband and her five-year- old son, and holds an Honors Baccalaureate from Virginia Tech in the field of Interdisciplinary Studies, with foci in Women’s Studies, Africana Studies, Theatre and Political Science.

References

Bennett, Andrew. Wordsworth Writing. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

O'Donnell, Brennan. The Passion of Meter: A Study of Wordsworth's Metrical Art. Kent State University Press, 1995.

Shaw, Robert B. Blank Verse: A Guide to Its History and Use. Ohio University Press, 2007.

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads With Other Poems, 1800, Vol. I. Project Gutenberg.< http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8905/pg8905- images.html>

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads With Other Poems, 1800, Vol. 2. Project Gutenberg.< http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8912/pg8912- images.html>

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Published

2017-12-19

Issue

Section

Articles