After reading both William Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “This Lime-tree Bower my Prison” I have come to the conclusion that Coleridge’s poem does reflect the ideals Wordsworth set forth in his essay. This can be deciphered through the fact that the aspects of poetry Wordsworth mentioned in his piece can be found throughout Coleridge’s poem.
Wordsworth states in his essay that “the principal object… in these Poems was to chuse incidents and situations from common life, and relate or describe them, throughout, as far as possible, in a selection of language really used by men: and at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way.” All of which are characteristics are found in “This Lime-tree Bower my Prison.” Coleridge pulls this poem from a real and common situation that happens to nearly everyone, the feeling of being left out. More specifically, the feeling of being angry about being left out. This disdain his narrator feels about being the one left behind can be seen in his opening lines that read, “well, they are gone, and here I must remain,/ this lime-tree bower my prison!” Relating the situation his speaker is in as a prison is also a common feeling that people can experience. They may not actually be in a cell, but for some people the four walls of their classroom, or in this case the branches of a Lime-tree can make them feel as though they are just as trapped as an inmate. Coleridge also uses language that is well planned out, but is very much common to depict his story. There are no complex SAT words that the common person would have to think twice about while reading. Instead, he uses words like “fling,” “ye,” and “gentle-hearted” for the speaker to use to tell his tale.To, as Wordsworth would put it, throw the simple situation over “a certain colouring of imagination,” Coleridge takes his readers to an eden-like place in nature. He depicts the scenery whimsically by describing it as “richly ting’d, and a deep radiance lay/ full on the ancient ivy, which usurps/ those fronting elms.” This provides almost an enchanting lens for readers to look through while reading about a man who is just simply sitting by a lime-tree.
Due to the techniques of basing the poem on a common situation, using common language, and adding a flair of imagination finding their ways into both William Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “This Lime-tree Bower my Prison” I am led to one conclusion. Coleridge’s poem does reflect the ideals Wordsworth set forth in his essay.
Brit Lit 2020 