For the second class,
subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and
incidents were to be such as will be found in every village and its
vicinity where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after
them, or to notice them when they present themselves.
In this idea originated the plan of the _Lyrical Ballads;_ [Footnote:
Published in 1798. It opened with the _Ancient Mariner_ and closed
with Wordsworth's lines on _Tintern Abbey._ Among other poems written
in Wordsworth's simplest style were _The Idiot Boy, The Thorn,_ and
_We are Seven._] in which it was agreed that my endeavours should be
directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic;
yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a
semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of
imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which
constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to
propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to
things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the
supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of
custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world
before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence
of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude, we have eyes, yet
see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor
understand.
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