How does Wordsworth defend the use of metre in poetry?

 

Ans. Wordsworth does not consider metre essential to poetry. But he justifies the use of metre in poetry because it obeys definite laws and its use is sanctified by tradition and authority, and rejects poetic diction because it is artificial, capricious and lawless. Wordsworth himself has used metre in his poems because he has written of universal passions of men, of their most interesting occupations, and of the world of nature. He has used metre for a number of reasons:

 

First, metre is an additional source of pleasure.

 

Secondly, in using metre, he has simply followed tradition because people in all ages and countries have acknowledged the charm of metrical language.

 

Thirdly, metre can provide pleasure generation after generation, even without the use of poetic diction.

 

Fourthly, metre can serve to moderate and temperate the excessive excitement.

Fifthly, the use of metre has a distancing effect - it restrains and softens unusual mental state.

Sixthly, metre imparts passion to the words and thus enables the poet to give rise to the appropriate excitement in the reader.

Seventhly, the use of metre provides the element of contrast and the perception of similarity in dissimilarity always gives pleasure.