Coleridge As A Critic

“COLERIDGE AS A CRITIC”
8 JUNE 2020
—
LITERARY CRITICISM
—
INTRODUCTION
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
(born October 21, 1772, Ottery
St. Mary, Devonshire, England—
died July 25, 1834, Highgate,
near London), English lyrical
poet, critic, and philosopher.
His Lyrical Ballads, written with
William Wordsworth, heralded the
English Romantic movement, and
his Biographia Literaria
(1817) is the most significant
work of general literary criticism
produced in the English Romantic
period.
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ABSTRACT
The function of criticism for Coleridge was to find out these elements and to
lift them into conscious awareness, rather than merely to prescribe or to
describe rules or forms. As a social critic, literary critic, and psychologist,
Coleridge expressed and explain an underlying creative principle that is
fundamental to both human beings and the universe as a whole.
COLERIDGE wrote Biographia Literaria (1817), a lenghty, confusing

but highly stimulating and influential work in which he outlined the
evolution of his thought and developed an extended critique of Wordsworth’s
poems. One effect of the adoption of this basis for his intellectual and
emotional life was a sense of liberation and an ability to produce large works
again. He drew together a collection of his poems (published in 1817 as
Sibylline Leaves) and Biographia Literaria. For the general reader Biographia
Literaria is a misleading volume, since it moves confusing between
autobiography, abstruse philosophical discussion, and literary criticism. It
has, however, an internal coherence of its own.
The book’s individual components—first an entertaining account of
Coleridge’s early life, then an account of the ways in which he became
dissatisfied with the associationist theories of David Hartley and other 18th-
century philosophers, then a reasoned critique of Wordsworth’s poems—are
fascinating. Over the whole work Coleridge’s respect for the power of
imagination: once this key is grasped, the unity of the work becomes evident
(understood).
COLERIDGE’S HIGH REPUTATION AS A

CRITIC.....!!
The reputation of the Colridge as a critic stands today higher than ever.
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He occupies, without doubt, the fist place among English literary critics. After
eliminating one after another the possible contenders for the title of the greatest critic,
Saintsbury concludes:
"So, then there abide these three – Aristotle, Longinus and Coleridge.”
According to Arthur Symons, Coleridge's Biographia Literaria is,
"… the greatest book of criticism in English."
Herbert Read concludes Coleridge as:
" … head and shoulders above every other English critic."
Richards considers him as the fore-runner "of the modern science of semantics",
Rene Wellek is of the view that he is a link,
"between German Transcendentalism and English Romanticism."
Coleridge’s “step across the threshold of a general theoretical study of

language was of the same type as that which took Galileo into the modern
world”
Most recent American Literary critics discuss none of the older critics except
COLERIDGE and ARISTOTLE. Constant references are made to Coleridge’s principle
of the reconciliation of opposites to his definition of the imagination, to the idea of the
organic whole, and to his distinction between symbol and allegory.
HIS GREATNESS IN PRACTICAL AND

THEORETICAL CRITICISM....!!
It is generally believed that Coleridge was one of the greatest critics. According to one
school of thought, Coleridge is to be admired as a critic mainly for having made insight
observations on particulars works and authors.
According to the other school of thought, Coleridge reputation rests on his successful
and suggestive traetment of abstract literary problems. The two points of view are not
mutually contradictory. The actual fact is that there is a direct and close relationship
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between the quality of his practical criticism and the quality of his theoretical criticism.
He is great in both feilds.
HIS STRESS ON CANONS OF CRITICISM....!!

According to “JACKSON” ,
“Coleridge was not only a literary critic but a social critic.”
Coleridge tried to reform a social attitudes of people of his times by trying to change
their methods of thinking. He also tried to reform literary criticism. In the Biographia
Literaria (chapter XXI) Coleridge says that the critics should first establish the
principles which he holds for the foundation of poetry in general and should only then
proceed with his judgement of the merits and faults of a literary works.
A critic he says should prepare his “CANONS OF CRITICISM FOR PRAISE AND
CONDEMNATION” and should then proceed to particularize the most striking
passages to which those canons are applicable, faithfully noting the excellences and
defects. He laments the fact that “ARBITRARY AND PETULANT VERDICTS “ are
common and that these verdicts are seldom supported by quotations from the work
condemned . this then may be regarded as Coleridge’s first claim to greatness as a
critic.
HIS CRITICAL THEORIES, BASED ON

METAPHYSICS AND PSYCHOLOGY...!!
AS “RENE WELLEK” points out...
“Coleridge differs from almost all preceding English writers by his claim to
an epistemology and metaphysics from which he drives his aesthetics and
his literary theory and critical principles”
Coleridge says clearly says in “BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA” that the critic should
support his judgements by references to fixed canons of criticism, previously
established and “deduced from the nature of man”. (means these principles must be
based on human nature).
In the famous definition of the poetry in BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA Coleridge’s speak

of the psychic effects on the readers . according to Coleridge the poet....
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“brings the whole soul of man into activity with the subordination of its
faculties to each other, according to their relative , worth and dignity”
HIS PHILOSOPHICAL DISTINCTION

BETWEEN “IMAGINATION” AND “FANCY”
His greatest and most original contribution to literary criticism is his theory of
imagination. Addison had examined the nature and function of imagination, and
Wordsworth, too, had developed his own theory on the subject. But all previous
discussions of imagination look superficial and childish when compared with
Coleridge's treatment of the subject. He is the first critic to differentiate between
“Imagination and Fancy”, and to differentiate between primary and secondary
Imagination.
THE PRIMARY IMAGINATION...!!
Is the living power and prime agent of all humans perceptions, and it is a repetition in
the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite “I AM”.
THE SECONDARY IMAGINATION...!!
Is an echo of the primary , it co-exists with the conscious will, and its differ from the
primary not in kind but only in degree and in the mode of its iperations. This
imagination dissolves , diffuses , or to idealize and to unify.
HIS CONCEPTION OF POETRY...!!

Through his theory of imagination he revolutionized the concept of artistic imitation.
Poetic imitation is neither a servile copy of nature, not is it the creation of something
entirely new and different from Nature. Poetry is not imitation, but creation, but it is
creation based on the sensations and impressions received from the external world.
Such impressions are shaped, ordered, modified and opposites are reconciled and
harmonized, by the imagination of the poet, and in this way poetic creation takes place.
Early in Biographia Literaria Coleridge speaks of the merits of BOWLES AND
COWPER in combining natural thoughts with natural diction and in reconcilings the
heart with the head.
R.A SCOTTS JAMES says that .....
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“In pointing out the needs for the union of the heart and the head,
Coleridge’s already strikes the keynotes, nothing without this union is
essential poetry for Coleridge.”
It was the union of deep feeling (heart) and profound thought (head) which stuck
Coleridge in WILLIAM WORDSWORTH poem “GUILT AND SORROW”
In his critique of Shakespears two poems Coleridge points out the importances of
thoughts he speaks of the “depth and energy of thoughts “ in Shakespears VENUS AND
ADONIS...and then adds that
“no man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a
profound philosopher “
About Poetry he says ....
“poetry is the blossom and the fragrancy of all human knowledge human
thoughts, human passion, emotions, language.”
HIS EMPHASIS ON METRE...!!

In BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA he writes an excellent defence of metre and rhyme
aganist WORDSWORTH comparative disparagement of these as a metre “SUPER
ADDED CHARM” . He sees that Metre is not only an ornament it must be organic
and all other parts of a poem must be consonant with it. From the Emphasis on Metre
it is but a small step to an insistence on the sweetness of versification. He says in his
remarks on SHAKESPEAR’S “venus and adonis” ....
“the man who has no music in his soul can never be a genuine poet”
HIS VIEWS ABOUT THE LANGUAGE AND THE

AIM OF POETRY...!!
COLERIDGE insistence that the language of poetry is different from the language of
prose. WORDSWORTH had said that their neither is nor can be any essential
difference between the language of poetry and that of prose, but Coleridge
demonstrates Wordsworth himself had not stuck to his Doctrine in this respect...he
tried to correct his friend error in formulating a doctrine of poetic diction which could
have gone great damage to poetry.
Coleridge regarded the immediate purpose of poetry as the communication of pleasure.
The communication of truth is the function of prose. Poetry must give pleasure and if at
the same time it also communicates truth so much the better.
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THE NEED OF UNITY IN A WORK OF ART...!!
The Neo-classic critics judged on the basis of fixed rules. They were neither legislative
nor judicial, nor were carried away by their prejudices. Coleridge does not judge on the
basis of any rules. He does not pass any judgment, but gives his responses and
reactions to a work of art.
“LANGUAGE , PASSION, AND CHARACTER MUST ACT AN REACT ON

EACH OTHER”
His criticism is impressionistic-romantic, a new kind of criticism, a criticism which

dealt a knock out blow to neo-classic criticism, and has been in vague, more or less,
ever since. He could discover new beauties in Shakespeare and could bring about fresh
re-valuations of a number of old English masters. Similarly, his criticism of
Wordsworth and his theories enable us to judge him and his views in the correct
perspective.
THE INFLUENCE OF HIS CRITICISM..!!

IN CONCLUSION...!!
He is the most important English Critic chiefly because he raised central question bout
criticism itself, its method and its philosophical basis. Yet in this feild where he is pre-
eminent , he is blamed or admired, according to the taste of the arbiter, Coleridge
influence on the criticism of the third to the “ SIXTH DECADES” of the 20 th century.
The function of criticism itself he concieved to be the lifting of all these elements into
awareness , not the prescribing of rules that can neither adequately be formulated by
the critic but rather what he called ....
“the principles of grammar , logic, and psychology” that is the basic elements of the
writer’s medium(language) of his instrument (the human mind) and the human
capacities and need
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“COLERIDGE AS A CRITIC”

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COLERIDGE wrote Biographia Literaria (1817), a lenghty, confusing

COLERIDGE’S HIGH REPUTATION AS A

REPORT TITLE PAGE 3

According to Arthur Symons, Coleridge's Biographia Literaria is,

"… the greatest book of criticism in English."

Herbert Read concludes Coleridge as:

" … head and shoulders above every other English critic."

"between German Transcendentalism and English Romanticism."

Coleridge’s “step across the threshold of a general theoretical study of

HIS GREATNESS IN PRACTICAL AND

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HIS STRESS ON CANONS OF CRITICISM....!!

“Coleridge was not only a literary critic but a social critic.”

HIS CRITICAL THEORIES, BASED ON

In the famous definition of the poetry in BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA Coleridge’s speak

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HIS PHILOSOPHICAL DISTINCTION

THE SECONDARY IMAGINATION...!!

HIS CONCEPTION OF POETRY...!!

R.A SCOTTS JAMES says that .....

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HIS EMPHASIS ON METRE...!!

HIS VIEWS ABOUT THE LANGUAGE AND THE

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“LANGUAGE , PASSION, AND CHARACTER MUST ACT AN REACT ON

His criticism is impressionistic-romantic, a new kind of criticism, a criticism which

THE INFLUENCE OF HIS CRITICISM..!!

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