Write a short note on Wordsworth's comment on Gray's lyric in "The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads".

Wordsworth in his "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads" refers to Gray's sonnet, "On the Death of Richard West" to give his view that the language of prose and the portry should be same : "There is neither, nor can be any essential difference between tha language of prose and metrical romance."

             He says that the language of poetry is hardly different from good prose. He particularly refers to the two lines of Gray's sonnet :
      "I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear/ And weep the more because I weep in vain."

              After examining this sonnet, Wordsworth says that it is quite obvious that "except in the rhyme and in the use of the single word 'fruitless' for fruitlessly, which is so far defect, the language of these lines does in no respect differ fromthat of prose."

                Wordsworth means to say that as a natural guess to his concept of poetic style the language of poetry cannot differ materially from that of prose : "the language of a large portion of every good poem.......in no respect differ from that of good prose........" Wordsworth says that though Gray is a great supporter of metrical composition or rhythmical writing, he even in his sonnet wrote in prosaic manner and by this reference Wordsworth makes his point strengthen and agreeable.