AThe masses
BThe elite
CEducated readers
DEmotional appeal
Answer:
B. The elite
Read Explanation:
Wordsworth says poetry must arise from the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."
Although a poet should make a poem seem spontaneous, the creation of it is not. Poetry must reflect emotion, or passion—not simply record observations.
The poet must draw from real-life experiences and describe them in ordinary language, and the poet must "throw over them a certain coloring of the imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect."
It is the imagination that permits the poet to touch on the eternal, making the surrounding world new and connecting the people with that world. Wordsworth analyzes what he sees as four parts of the poet's creative process.
The poet first observes something that creates a powerful emotion. Then he tranquilly contemplates and reflects on the emotion.
During this period the poet may recall other things that relate to the observation itself or to the past in some way. Such contemplation is personal, intended only for the poet.
The tranquility of contemplation disappears after a time, and then the poet distills all these thoughts, eliminating some and keeping others so that the original emotion is recreated in a way that is more universal.
Finally the poet is ready to write, with the aim of sharing the emotion with an audience.
Poetry, therefore, doesn't arise from classical models or through an immediate inspiration on any supernatural level. It arises through experience on an ordinary level—understood and reflected upon.
Wordsworth rejects elaboration or literary devices as artificial and uses numerous examples of earlier poets' work in his discussion.
He hopes to lead readers to meditate on their own emotions and arrive eventually at a more moral and true conception of themselves and of life. Poetry can achieve the finest level of art by being simple and straightforward.