William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800)

“For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: and though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who … also thought long and deeply” (243). Wordsworth believes to produce good poetry, the poet must be possessed but at “the moment of composition must be filled with reason and calmness” (244). Bad poetry is bad because the poet has not controlled his emotions but has let them take over him.

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Note added at 4 mins (2005-08-07 12:54:58 GMT)
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To be more precise:

\'all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: but though this be true, poems to which any value can be attached, were never produced ... but by a man who, being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply\' (p.242).

http://homepages.strath.ac.uk/~chcs05/romanticism/lyricalbal...