Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 210 pages
Lyrical Ballads was
first published in 1798, and its appearance marked the definitive
emergence of the Romantic movement in English. It is one of those rare books that
actually changed the world - it is only a slight exaggeration to say
that after Lyrical Ballads it became impossible to write poetry the way it had been written before.
O reader! had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle reader! you would find
A tale in every thing.
There
is no distinction made within the book itself between the two authors,
but apparently Coleridge only contributed four of the poems, although
they include the immortal "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and
"The Nightingale". They are matched in well-deserved fame by
Wordsworth's "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey". These are
not diamonds in the rough, however, in a volume that includes works
such as the amusing "The Idiot Boy", the harrowing "The Thorn", the
touching "We are seven", the sardonic "The Last of the Flock", the
poignant "Simon Lee, the old Huntsman", and the wonderful "Goody Blake
and Harry Gill".
Enough of science and of art;
Close up these barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
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