The end of poetry is to produce excitement in co existence with an over balance of pleasure.

 Exp. The extract has been extracted from Wordsworth's famous critical theory Preface to Lyrical Ballads. The poet-critic illustrates here the true end of poetry.

·       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. Wordsworth explains the reasons for his writing in verse, not in prose. He has written in verse, because the use of metre is an additional source of pleasure. Some critics have under-rated metre, saying that very little pleasure of poetry depends upon the use of metre. They also say that metre should be accompanied by suitable poetic  diction. But Wordsworth affirms that metre is a great source of pleasure. He justifies the use of metre by laying that the end of poetry is to produce excitement in co-existence with an over balance of pleasure, Excitement is on irregular and unusual state of mind. In a state of excitement, ideas and feelings do not follow one another in an ordinary manner. Metre is regular - it is something usual and it serves to be the tempering influence. It restrains and softens the tumult of emotions. Metre can serve to moderate and temperate the excessive excitement. The use of metre has a distancing effect - it restrains and softens unusual mental state. It imparts passion to the words and this enables the give rise to the appropriate excitement in the reader. The use metre provides the element of contrast and the perception of similarity in dissimilarity always gives pleasure.