That sense of a life in natural objects, which in most poetry is but a rhetorical artifice, was, then, in Wordsworth the assertion of what was for him almost literal fact.

Summary

This quote means that while many poets use the idea of finding personal meaning or significance in nature as a rhetorical device in their poetry, for Wordsworth, it was a genuine and factual experience. He truly believed that there is a profound connection between human life and the natural world, and this sense of interconnectedness was not just a literary technique for him, but a personal truth.

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