Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems, 1800, Volume 1
by William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
- Free to read
- 2 hours to read
- 30 chapters
- Reading level: 7th grade
"Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems, 1800, Volume 1" by William Wordsworth is a poetry collection first published in 1798. This groundbreaking work, co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, launched the English Romantic movement by rejecting formal eighteenth-century verse in favor of common, everyday language. The poets focused on simple country people and their emotions, seeking to return readers to nature's original purity. The 1800 edition introduced Wordsworth's famous preface, now considered Romanticism's manifesto, which outlined revolutionary principles about poetry's purpose and accessibility.
- English poetry · 19th century
Read the opening
Chapter I
There is a thorn; it looks so old,
In truth you'd find it hard to say,
How it could ever have been young,
It looks so old and grey.
Not higher than a two years' child
It stands erect this aged thorn;
No leaves it has, no thorny points;
It is a mass of knotted joints,
A wretched thing forlorn.
It stands erect, and like a stone
With lichens it is overgrown.
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About this edition
This free edition of Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems, 1800, Volume 1 by William Wordsworth comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #8905, released 2005-09-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, British Literature.
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