It is the honourable characteristic of Poetry that its materials are to
be found in every subject which can interest the human mind. The
evidence of this fact is to be sought, not in the writings of Critics,
but in those of Poets themselves.
The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments.
They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language
of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to
the purposes of poetic pleasure. Readers accustomed to the gaudiness and
inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they persist in reading
this book to its conclusion, will perhaps frequently have to struggle
with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for
poetry, and will be induced to enquire by what species of courtesy these
attempts can be permitted to assume that title. It is desirable that
such readers, for their own sakes, should not suffer the solitary word
Poetry, a word of very disputed meaning, to stand in the way of their
gratification; but that, while they are perusing this book, they should
ask themselves if it contains a natural delineation of human passions,
human characters, and human incidents; and if the answer be favourable
to the author’s wishes, that they should consent to be pleased in spite
of that most dreadful enemy to our pleasures, our own pre-established
codes of decision.
Readers of superior judgment may disapprove of the style in which many
of these pieces are executed it must be expected that many lines and
phrases will not exactly suit their taste. It will perhaps appear to
them, that wishing to avoid the prevalent fault of the day, the author
has sometimes descended too low, and that many of his expressions are
too familiar, and not of sufficient dignity. It is apprehended, that the
more conversant the reader is with our elder writers, and with those in
modern times who have been the most successful in painting manners and
passions, the fewer complaints of this kind will he have to make.
An accurate taste in poetry, and in all the other arts, Sir Joshua
Reynolds has observed, is an acquired talent, which can only be produced
by severe thought, and a long continued intercourse with the best models
of composition. This is mentioned not with so ridiculous a purpose as to
prevent the most inexperienced reader from judging for himself; but
merely to temper the rashness of decision, and to suggest that if poetry
be a subject on which much time has not been bestowed, the judgment may
be erroneous, and that in many cases it necessarily will be so.
The tale of Goody Blake and Harry Gill is founded on a
well-authenticated fact which happened in Warwickshire. Of the other
poems in the collection, it may be proper to say that they are either
absolute inventions of the author, or facts which took place within his
personal observation or that of his friends. The poem of the Thorn, as
the reader will soon discover, is not supposed to be spoken in the
author’s own person: the character of the loquacious narrator will
sufficiently shew itself in the course of the story. The Rime of the
Ancyent Marinere was professedly written in imitation of the _style_, as
well as of the spirit of the elder poets; but with a few exceptions, the
Author believes that the language adopted in it has been equally
intelligible for these three last centuries. The lines entitled
Expostulation and Reply, and those which follow, arose out of
conversation with a friend who was somewhat unreasonably attached to
modern books of moral philosophy.