In William WordsworthÆs Preface to Lyrical Ballads, we see a definite democratic flavor to WordsworthÆs ideas of what constitutes good poetry. Democracy is based on the notion that in the state of nature human beings have certain inalienable rights. When states are constructed, the goal of the state is to secure these rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) by the people who put them in power to do so. The contention that in nature all human beings have certain inalienable rights implies commonality and universality. If all human beings have these rights, then all human being share a basic level of commonality, that is, all humans regardless of background, culture, or experience, merit such rights.
In WordsworthÆs Preface to Lyrical Ballads, we see that WordsworthÆs ideas on poetry are shaped by this commonality or universality among human beings, one that is connected to and mirrors nature.
Wordsworth opens his preface by stating his purpose and illustrating some of the chief reasons which have led him to such purpose. WordsworthÆs purpose is to produce a class of poetry that is genuine, a class of poetry that is ôin its nature well adapted to interest mankind permanently, and likewise important in the multiplicity and quality of its moral relationsö (13). We can argue that anything that is interesting to mankind ôpermanentlyö must be universal to all human beings, like democracyÆs inalienable rights. As such, themes of death, love, joy, and sorrow are universal and interest mankind permanently. These themes are pervasive in WordsworthÆs poems.
There are a number of choices made by Wordsworth in crafting his poems; reasons he outlines are being significant to creating the class of poetry to which he refers. Wordsworth has crafted his poems by choosing ôincidents and situations from common lifeö (2). Wordsworth has also chosen to share these situati
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