Preface to Lyrical Ballads • Paragraph 6
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The more nearly the language of prose approaches to that of poetry, the less it will be found to be available; for there are circumstances and feelings in which a man is hardly ever conscious of himself, — in which his mind, by its suddenness and energy, escapes from its chain, and throws off the load of cogitation. For such feelings, if they are to be embodied and preserved, it is requisite that the poet should either reproduce the language of actual life, or should avowly adopt such forms of speech as suspend the operation of words from their usual connexion and create by their novelty an effect analogous to that of passion.