William Wordsworth's arguments for rhyme in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads".

In the "Preface to Lyrical Ballads", Wordsworth though condemns the use of poetic diction as it is artificial, he supports the use of metre in poetry. " The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads", says Garrod, "is quite as much a,defence of the employment of metre in poetry as a protest against the poetic diction." The fact is that Wordsworth's views on poetic diction and on the use of metre in poetry are not in harmony with one another. And Wordsworth is quite conscious about it and gives his logics in favour of metre:

    He first says that metre is not essential for poetry, he regards it as merely "pleasure superadded", but he himself uses it in his most of all poetry. He defences the use of metre in poetry in these ways ----

       Firstly, the use of metre is an additional source of pleasure.

       Secondly, metre is used traditionally both by the good poets and the bad poets. He says that people in all ages and countries have acknowledged the charm of metrical language and therefore these languages are used conventionally. Metre is " continued to give pleasure generation after generation."

       Thirdly, Wordsworth says, "the end of poetry is to produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure." In a state of excitement, ideas and feelings do not follow each other in the accustomed order. Sometimes emotional excitement may be too excessive and some kind of restraint may become necessary. Metre has this "tempering and restraining" effect.

       Fourthly, metre synthesizes the diverse elements in the composition and thus produces a similitude and dissimilitude.

       Finally, metre creates an aesthetic distinctive painful situations and feeling, when communicated in a metrical language, appear remote and so become more endurable---- "....more pathetic situations and sentiment.....which have a greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in metrical composition....."

   These are the various advantages of metre and therefore Wordsworth justifies the use of metre in poetry.