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.
