The term ‘diction’ signifies the choice phrasing and using of words
attractively and beautifully in any work of literature. Poetic diction
is such a kind of diction, which is deemed suitable to poetry alone.
Since the time of Aristotle there has not been any consensus of opinion
as to what constitutes proper poetic diction. The poets of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries found a style in the use of Latinism. The poet
of the next century found pleasure in using archaism or obsolete words
along with Latinism. Milton laid stress on both Latin words and Latin
grammar. William Wordsworth was partly or wholly against all these
styles or dictions of poetry followed by poets before him.
In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads he tried to evolve out a new poetic diction. He realized that the prevalent poetic diction used by the poets was not only obscuring the meaning but also obstructing the full development of poetic excellence. The crux of his theory of diction is the seminal Romantic that the poetic style is organic and not prescriptive. Since every poet’s mode of experience is peculiar to him, it will find expression in a style appropriate to it. Consequently no general poetic diction can be prescribed for all poets to follow. But the poet’s of his preceding ages followed a set rule, a general poetic diction characterized by the known device and figures of speech. Wordsworth denounces the artificial language and avoids such rhetorical devices as periphrasis, personification, antithesis and inversion, for they are cut off from the main roots of poetic sensibility. His main purpose is to imitate, and as far as possible, to adopt the very language of man. He is strongly opposed to a prescribed poetic diction for it is not true to nature either to external native or to human nature in its responses to external. According to Wordsworth, since poetry concerns itself with grand elemental facts about man and nature, the poets should avoid the “transitory and accidental ornaments” and should use simple elemental language. To him the poet “is a man speaking to men” and “Poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
S.T. Coleridge, T.S. Eliot and other critics vehemently criticized Wordswoth’s theory of poetic diction. T.S. Eliot said that Wordsworth was motivated by the democratic impulse to reject the language of the king and the aristocrats. The style he has followed in his poems is not in conformity with what he has said. He is not going the whole hog for the rustic language, though qualifies his enthusiasm for it. His own great poems are a product of a process like this but his attempt to dislodge the hackneyed poetic style of his day. Wordsworth has made some indiscreet remarks. His proposition to adopt the language of men is rather vague. What does the language of men exactly signify? Besides, there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. As the meter is a charm is not quite conformity with the organic view of the style. It amounts to prescribe one style in place of the other.
In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads he tried to evolve out a new poetic diction. He realized that the prevalent poetic diction used by the poets was not only obscuring the meaning but also obstructing the full development of poetic excellence. The crux of his theory of diction is the seminal Romantic that the poetic style is organic and not prescriptive. Since every poet’s mode of experience is peculiar to him, it will find expression in a style appropriate to it. Consequently no general poetic diction can be prescribed for all poets to follow. But the poet’s of his preceding ages followed a set rule, a general poetic diction characterized by the known device and figures of speech. Wordsworth denounces the artificial language and avoids such rhetorical devices as periphrasis, personification, antithesis and inversion, for they are cut off from the main roots of poetic sensibility. His main purpose is to imitate, and as far as possible, to adopt the very language of man. He is strongly opposed to a prescribed poetic diction for it is not true to nature either to external native or to human nature in its responses to external. According to Wordsworth, since poetry concerns itself with grand elemental facts about man and nature, the poets should avoid the “transitory and accidental ornaments” and should use simple elemental language. To him the poet “is a man speaking to men” and “Poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
S.T. Coleridge, T.S. Eliot and other critics vehemently criticized Wordswoth’s theory of poetic diction. T.S. Eliot said that Wordsworth was motivated by the democratic impulse to reject the language of the king and the aristocrats. The style he has followed in his poems is not in conformity with what he has said. He is not going the whole hog for the rustic language, though qualifies his enthusiasm for it. His own great poems are a product of a process like this but his attempt to dislodge the hackneyed poetic style of his day. Wordsworth has made some indiscreet remarks. His proposition to adopt the language of men is rather vague. What does the language of men exactly signify? Besides, there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. As the meter is a charm is not quite conformity with the organic view of the style. It amounts to prescribe one style in place of the other.
