Explain the theory of poetry that Wordsworth and Coleridge lay out in their important work, "Preface to Lyrical Ballads." What do they say that poetry should be? What should its subjects be? How should it sound? Quote from the "Preface" in your response.

Wordsworth believed the object of poems was to portray actual events "in a selection of language really used by men." He believed that the use of poetic imagination should make what we already know appear to be new and fresh.

Coleridge agreed that object of poetry is to excite sympathy, but he also puts a larger focus on the role of imagination as being crucial to this objective.