1. Who is Wordsworth?

Ans: Wordsworth is a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, launched the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads in 1798.

2. What is pantheism?

Ans: Pantheism is a belief that God is present in all the things and all the beings of this universe.

4. What is a Ballad?

Ans: Ballad is a narrative poem which tells a grave story through dialogue and action. Its language is simple and theme is often tragic.

5. What is “Lyrical Ballads”?

Ans: Lyrical Ballads is a collection of poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. It was first published in 1798.

6. What is the Preface to Lyrical Ballads?

Ans: Preface to Lyrical Ballads is a preface that was prefixed with Lyrical Ballads by Wordswoth and Coleridge. It is called the manifesto of Romantic Movement.

7. Why did Wordsworth write "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"?

Ans: Wordsworth wrote "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" at the request of his friends to give his readers a briefing about the type of poems they would get in “Lyrical Ballads".

8. How does Wordsworth define poetry in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads?

Ans: Wordsworth in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads defines poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."

26. Who is a poet? [NU 2017]

Ans: According to Wordsworth, a poet is a man speaking to men.

32. What are some of the characteristics of the poet?

Ans: Some of the characteristics of a poet, as stated by Wordsworth, are given below: 

i. A poet is a man speaking to men, 

ii. He is endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, 

iii. He has a greater knowledge of human nature, and 

iv. He has a more comprehensive soul.

28. How is the poet 'chiefly distinguished from other men?

Ans: The Poet is chiefly distinguished from other men by a greater promptness to think and feel without immediate external excitement, and a greater power in expressing such thoughts and feelings as are produced in him in that manner.

9. What kind of people are chosen by Wordsworth in ‘Lyrical Ballads’?

Ans: Humble and rustic people are chosen by Wordsworth in ‘Lyrical Ballads’.

10. What was the theme of Wordsworth's new poetry?

Ans: The theme of Wordsworth's new poetry was humble and rustic life.

11. Why does Wordsworth choose humble and rustic life?

Ans: Wordsworth chooses humble and rustic life because in that condition, "the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity….”.

12. What should be the subject matter of poetry according to Wordsworth?

Ans: According to Wordsworth, the subject matter of poetry should be the incidents and situations from common life.  

13. Why did Wordsworth choose the language of the common man?

Ans: Wordsworth chose the language of the common man ‘because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived’.

14. What is poetic diction?

Ans: Poetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry.

15. What is meant by "metrical composition"?

Ans: "Metrical composition" means poem.

16. What is the main difference between a poet and a common man? [NU 2016]

Ans: The main difference between a poet and a common man, according to Wordsworth, is not in nature, but in degree. A poet is a man who has greater sensibility, imagination, knowledge of human nature, comprehensiveness, zest for life, and power of communication than a common man.

17. What is ‘organic sensibility’?

Ans: ‘Organic sensibility’ means the capacity of a man to receive and internalize external impressions through the senses. 

18. What is metre?

Ans: Metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse.

19. What purpose does metre serve in poetry?

Ans: Meatre serves the purpose of heightening and improving the pleasure of reading poetry.

20. What is personification?

Ans: Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

21. Why does Wordsworth avoid the use of personification?

Ans: Wordsworth avoids the use of personification because it sometimes seems to be a mechanical device to him.

22. What sort of truth does poetry give?

Ans: Poetry gives such truth that gives pleasure.

23. What is poetic truth?

Ans: Poetic truth is the universal element in human nature and in human life. It is much higher than historical truth or philosophical truth.

24. What is "Celestial Ichor"?

Ans: According to classical mythology, “celestial ichor” is the fluid that runs through the veins of gods.

25. What are the purposes of poetry according to Wordsworth?

Ans: According to Wordsworth, the purposes of poetry are to enlighten the readers and to purify their affections.  

26. What is the difference between science and poetry?

Ans: One of the differences between science and poetry is that poetry accommodates everybody but science accommodates a few. 

27. How is poetry superior to science?

Ans: According to Wordsworth, poetry is superior to science because the poet’s appeal is to the intellect as well as to the heart of man, unlike the appeal of the scientist’s truth which appeals to the intellect alone.

28. How is poetry compared to human heart?

Ans: Poetry is compared to human heart in respect of their immortality. Wordsworth says that poetry is as immortal as the heart of man