The ＂Other＂ Wordsworth: Philosophy, Art, and the Pursuit of the ＂Real＂ in the Preface to ＂Lyrical Ballads＂

This essay attempts to demonstrate the Preface to ”Lyrical Ballads'” critical and historical relevance, first, by considering its historical reception, and second, by reconsidering one of the key concepts of the Preface, the notion of the ”real”, within the larger context of this reception. During his lifetime, Wordsworth was considered in two different respects: one, as the poet of simple ballads; the other, as the speculative, inwardly driven poet of ”The Excursion”. I argue that this second model, expounded first by Coleridge in ”Biographia Literaria”, has influenced such major critics as Hartman, Pottle, and Bloom, particularly in their interpretations of Wordsworth's early career. By considering the ”other” Wordsworth, the Wordsworth of the Preface, the dialectic can be historically resituated. Ultimately, I wish to rethink the Preface by importing the idea of philosophy into what has hitherto been considered to be not a philosophical work.