“Inane gaudiness” is a phrase used in connection with neo-classicism by ________

The correct option is William Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth used the phrase "inane gaudiness" in the famous Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (first included in the 1800 edition). In this preface, which served as a manifesto for the Romantic movement, Wordsworth launched a critique against the poetic conventions of the preceding 18th-century Neo-classical era.
Neo-classical poets frequently employed a highly stylized, artificial, and ornate language known as "poetic diction." Wordsworth argued that this decorative style distanced poetry from the genuine feelings and experiences of common people.

To express his dissatisfaction with these artificial poetic ornaments, Wordsworth wrote that the poems in Lyrical Ballads were an attempt to model language on the real tongue of men, avoiding the "inane gaudiness and vague phraseology" of his predecessors. He advocated instead for a simpler, more rustic language that directly captures human emotion and the beauty of nature.