translator

Wordsworth’s choice of words in this portion of the preface to Lyrical Ballads is especially interesting. The later portion of this paragraph describes how poets are conveyers of the truth. Wordsworth specifically names poetry, “the image of man and nature.”

These proclamations of Wordsworth are very interesting to consider in light of how he first paints his thoughts in this paragraph. He begins by explaining how passion, put in words, is different from passion felt in the moment. He sees poetry’s function as a medium of language where a figure attempts to exquisitely fit words in an order that expresses passion. The idea in essence is that the poet’s function is that of a translator. He allows people to experience certain passions within one’s self though language and not actual interactions with nature.

Translation is a curiously chosen word by Wordsworth because in some ways it detracts from what he is trying to say. Poets’ in his eyes are truth tellers but is there truth (to the degree that Wordsworth talks of) in interpretations? It is not likely that this is what Wordsworth intends to have his readers contemplate here; nonetheless, his use of the word translation in this paragraph makes his definition of poets’ and overall argument weaker.