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How did William Wordsworth define poetry?
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Romantic literature
English Romantic poet and artist William Blake wrote and illustrated “The Tyger” and other poems in his book Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794).
In the context of Romantic literature, William Wordsworth famously defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."12
This definition, articulated in his preface to the Lyrical Ballads, reflects the broader Romantic shift away from the formal, mimetic conventions of the 18th century toward an emphasis on individual experience and personal emotion. Wordsworth believed that poetry should be rooted in the "language really used by men," rejecting the "gaudy and inane" poetic diction that he felt had become stale and artificial. By prioritizing the intensity of feeling and the organic development of a poem's form, Wordsworth sought to democratize literature, focusing on the everyday lives and emotions of ordinary people.1234