Leont'ev and Wordsworth

[Ona Renner-Fahey]

>2. Where does Wordsworth (probably somewhere in the Prelude) use the phrase
>"emotions recollected in tranquility"?
>
In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1850) Wordsworth writes:
"For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (127).

And then some 20 pages later:

"I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings:
it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: The emotion is
contemplated till, by a species of re-action, the tranquility gradually
disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of
contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the
mind.  In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood
similar to this it is carried on; but the emotion, of whatever kind, and in
whatever degree, from various causes, is qualified by various pleasures, so
that in describing any passions whatsoever, which are voluntarily
described, the mind will, upon the whole, be in a state of enjoyment" (149)

The Prose Works of William Wordsworth.  (Oxford at the Clarendon Press,
1974, v. 1)

Hope this is of some use,
Ona Renner-Fahey

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