Lyrical Ballads and Other Poems

Lyrical Ballads and Other Poems, first published anonymously in 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, stands as a foundational work of English Romanticism. The collection features 23 poems, with Wordsworth contributing the majority focused on rural life, nature, and ordinary people depicted in simple, everyday language to evoke deep emotion, while Coleridge provides key supernatural pieces like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It broke from neoclassical conventions by prioritizing rustic ballads and conversational verse over ornate diction, challenging readers to find profound truths in common experiences, and the 1800 edition’s famous Preface articulated this revolutionary poetic theory.