Final answer:
Wordsworth's process embodies the Romantic dislike of control by valuing genuine emotion and individuality over societal restrictions. Romanticism championed emotional freedom and critiqued institutions that repressed individual expression. The movement sought to transcend the confines of Enlightenment rationality through a deeper connection with the natural world.
Step-by-step explanation:
The process Wordsworth describes reflects the Romantic dislike of control by emphasizing the importance of individual emotional response over societal constraints and rational order. Wordsworth's idea that poetry is the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity” underscores the Romantic emphasis on authentic, personal expression unshackled by rigid forms or rational control.
The movement of Romanticism protested against the sterile rationality of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, favoring instead the imaginative, the personal, and the emotional. Institutions of the time, which sought to regulate and control society, including the poor, were criticized by Romantics like Wordsworth, as these institutions were often seen to stifle individual freedom and ignore the plights and emotional complexity of individuals.
Wordsworth's engagement with the social issues of his time, such as poverty and the treatment of the poor, aligns with the Romantic pursuit of compassion and humanity over bureaucratic control. Through his poetry and correspondence, Wordsworth expounded on the evils of institutional control over the poor, suggesting the need for a more compassionate approach that considered the full emotional and material complexity of poverty. Romanticism's promotion of the individual's imaginative response to nature and their ability to experience extreme emotions connected with the sublime was a critical counterpoint to the era's increased regulation and mechanization of life.