Moderate

Complete the following sentence. Wordsworth's advocacy of poets drawing on the "language really used by men" in his preface to Lyrical Ballads represents______________?

Correct answer: A. a radical break with 18th-century rules on elevated diction.

  • A. a radical break with 18th-century rules on elevated diction.
  • B. a continuity with poets such as Alexander Pope.
  • C. a rejection of nature in favor of society.
  • D. a defense of the use of elaborate figurative language.

Explanation

Wordsworth’s principle rejects the artificial, highly elevated diction associated with much eighteenth-century poetry and turns instead to ordinary speech shaped by emotion. This marks a major Romantic break from neoclassical poetic rules.

Last updated

Practise Literary Movements and Periods

529 free Literary Movements and Periods MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and an explanation. Unlimited attempts, no account needed.

Exams that ask English Literature questions like this

English Literature is on 2 papers prepared for on TestUstad, and all of them draw the same bank, so this question is worth knowing for every one of them.

Related questions