Lyrical Ballads is a landmark poetry collection by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and expanded in later editions. It is closely associated with the rise of Romantic poetry because it turned toward ordinary speech, everyday life, and emotional freshness rather than formal, elevated subjects.
The collection is often studied for the different ways the two poets approached lyric and narrative poetry, and for the influence it had on later English verse.
Example
The first edition of Lyrical Ballads helped convince many readers that poetry could speak in a simpler, more natural voice.