Wordsworth opens his essay by acknowledging the recent publication of his collection of poems Lyrical Ballads. He had anticipated, correctly, that the book would divide the public into those who loved the poems and those who hated them; his only surprise has been that even more people have liked the book than he had hoped.

Wordsworth’s friends are anxious for the book’s success and hope it will foster a new school of poetry. They have advised Wordsworth to write a “systematic defence” of his poetic methods. Wordsworth was at first reluctant to do so: He doesn’t think it possible to convince someone rationally to like a particular style of poetry, and expounding fully on his views would be beyond the scope of a preface. At the same time, he is conscious of the “impropriety” of “abruptly obtruding upon the Public” (2) poems so different from the norm without some introduction.

The poems aimed to depict incidents and situations from everyday life in language used by people every day, yet the subjects would be imbued with “a certain colouring of imagination” (3) so that ordinary things are presented in an unusual light.