spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

Twice in Wordsworth’s preface to the lyrical ballads, he defines poetry as the “spontaneous overflow of feelings.” However, Wordsworth does not believe that anyone can have these feelings. Without coming out and saying it, Wordsworth hints that a true poet must be old.

Wordsworth sees poetry as emotions that come while reflecting on the past. The “passion” he mentions is not stirred by active exterior stimulants, but by thoughts of the past that have settled in a poet’s mind and, merely through time, have created a intricate web that replicates nature.

The wave of emotion that Wordsworth’s poet has “recollected in tranquility” resembles Coleridge’s “intellectual breeze” running over the Eolian harp: “tranquil muse upon tranquility.” Wordsworth sees writing poetry as a passive experience, and true tranquility can only be reached by the aged.