thinking about emotions and memory…
Wordsworth argued that poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate dictions that were then considered “poetic.” He argued that poetry should offer access to the emotions contained in memory, that the first principle of poetry should be pleasure – the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling—for all human sympathy, he claimed, is based on a subtle pleasure principle that is “the naked and native dignity of man.” More on Wordsworth’s poetry here.