What was the early public response to Lyrical Ballads?

When Lyrical Ballads was first published in 1798, it received a mixed public reception. Because the collection utilized common, conversational language and focused on the lives of humble, rustic people, it challenged the literary conventions of the time.12

Critics often reacted with hostility to this departure from formal poetic standards. For instance, a reviewer in the New London Review dismissed the work, asserting that the language of the lower classes could never be considered the language of poetry. Robert Southey, a former collaborator of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, provided a particularly harsh critique in The Critical Review, labeling the subjects of the poems as uninteresting and describing parts of the collection as absurd or unintelligible.1

Despite this backlash, the work found supporters who recognized its significance. Mary Robinson, the poetry editor of the Morning Post, became a notable champion of the collection, promoting the poems in her newspaper and even publishing her own imitative work. The collection’s revolutionary approach ultimately marked the beginning of English Romanticism, leading to multiple subsequent editions.12