Please analyse Wordsworth's definition of poetry from his Preface to the "Lyrical Ballads.""Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful...

This often quoted sentiment from Wordsworth speaks directly to both his beliefs as a poet and a thinker of Romanticism.  The quote speaks to how Wordsworth feels poetry is to be created.  In stark contrast to the Neoclassical period which preceded Romanticism and was driven by wit and a sense of the intellectual, Wordsworth believes poetry as something to be created from the realm of the subjective.  The idea of a "spontaneous overflow" drives home the notion of the affect in both poetry and the creation of it.  While the mind does possess a role in this state of being, the artist must be in a synchronized mode with their consciousness from an affect point of view.  This is enhanced with the idea of recalling this emotional state from a point of recollection in tranquility, implying that the poet or artist cannot engage in this profess of reflection and rumination from a position in traditional and conformist society.