Dhaka International University

Department of English

An Assignment

ON
Coleridge as a Critic of Poetic Theory
Course Name: Theory of Literature—ll
Course Code: Eng-207
Submitted by: Submitted to:
Name: Md. Ariful Islam Prof. Sazzad Hossain
Program: B.A Hons in English Professor & Ex-Chairman
Batch No: 37/B Department of English
Roll No: 44 Dhaka international University
Reg. No: 105046
Sem: 5th

Submission Date: 27.10.2021

Introduction:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge [1772-1834] was a great poet, but he is also a great
critic. He is one of the greatest of poet-critics that England has ever produced. He was a genius and
when he inspired, and when the mood was upon him, he could create works of the highest order, but
he was incapable of sustained and persistent labour.
Stray’s remarks on literature and literary theory are scattered all over his prose works as, The Friend,
Table Talks, Letters, Aids to Reflections, Confessions of an Inquiring spirit, Animal Poteau and
Sibylline Leaves. But the bulk of his literary criticism, all that is most worthwhile in it is contained in
his
(1) Biographia Literaria and
(2) Lectures on Shakespeare and other poets.
Activity of the ‘poet’s’ mind, and a ‘poem’ is merely one of the forms of us expression, a verbal
expression of that activity, and poetic activity is basically an activity of the imagination. As David
Daiches points out. ‘Poetry’ for Coleridge is a wider category than that of “poem”, that is poetry is a
kind of activity which can be engaged in by painters or philosophers or scientists and is not confined
to those who employ metrical language, or even to those who employ language of any kind. Poetry,
in this larger sense brings, “the whole soul of man”, into activity, with each faculty playing its proper
part according to its ‘relative worth and dignity’. This takes place whenever the “secondary
imagination” comes into operation. Whenever the synthesizing the integrating, powers of the
secondary imagination is at work, bringing all aspects of a subject into a completion unity, then
poetry in this larger sense results.
Coleridge is one of the greatest of literary critics, and his greatness has been almost universally
recognized. He occupies, without doubt, the first place among English literary critics. After
eliminating one after another the possible contenders for the title of the greatest critic, Saintsbury
concludes:
Coleridge’s Criticism:
→ Themes of poetry:
● Rustic Language:
At the second charge on the statement of Wordsworth, Coleridge object that best part of the
language is derived from object which the rustic constantly communicates. First, communication with
an object indicate reflection on it, and richness of vocabulary arises from such a reflection. Coleridge
says that vocabulary of rustic is poor because they can express only barest fact of nature can’t
express such a idea, thoughts or universal-law which from reflection on the facts. secondly,
Coleridge charge that the best part of the man's language does not simply communicates with
nature. but from the education, from the noble ideas, thoughts, words and great mind. So, here
Coleridge object that man communicates with nature through his ideas and with the master mind of
humanity.

● Poetic Diction:

Coleridge, even though he did not agree to Wordsworth's views on poetic diction, vindicated
his poetic creed in chapter 14 of Biographia Literaria. Coleridge writes in defence to the violent to the
'Language of real life' adopted by Wordsworth in the Lyrical Ballads . Wordsworth manifest that the
language of poetry is, “a selection of the real language of men or the very language of men, and that
there was no any difference between the language of prose and that of poetry”, Coleridge, retorts
that, ‘every man’s language’, “varies according to the extent of his knowledge, the activity of his
faculties and the depth or quickness of his feelings. “Every man’s language has, first its individual
peculiarities, secondly, the properties common to the class to which he belongs, and thirdly, words
and phrases of universal use. “No two men of the same class or of different classes speak alike,
although both use words and phrases common to them all, because in the one case their natures are
different, and in the one case their nature are different, and in the other their classes are different.”
This applies as much to the language of rustics to that of townsmen in both cases. The language
varies form person to person, class to class, and place to place.
According to Coleridge there are two main cardinal points of poetry:
(1) The power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature.
(2) The power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colors of imagination.
Words worth tried to focus on the charms of novelty to things of everyday directing the human mind
to the loveliness and wonders of the world. According to Coleridge there aretwo types of poetry:

(1) Nature Poetry

In which the incidents and people were to be the part of supernatural. Coleridge says that subject of
the poem, people and other objects should be chosen from ordinary life. It should be taken from the
rustic and the village life. In lyrical: ballads it was written that the persons and characters which are
supernatural or at least romantic. Thus our interest should transfer from our inward nature to human
interest. According to Coleridge the language of poetry should be the language of real life. A poem
contains the same elements as a prose composition. It is distinguished from prose by meter or
rhyme. In this sense it is the lowest sense of poem. A particular type of pleasure is derived from the
sounds and all compositions that have this charm may be entitled as a poem. A difference of object
and content also distinguishes them. The immediate purpose may be the communication of truth
either absolute truth as science or facts experienced and recorded as in history. Pleasure and that of
the highest and the most permanent kind may result from the allayment of the end. In other words
the communication of pleasure may be the immediate purpose and the truth either moral or
intellectual ought to be the ultimate and. The communication of pleasure may be the immediate:
object of a work not metrically composed. It is quite possible that the highest type of pleasure can be
communicated by a novel then can it be called a poem? In this case the final definition is:
A poem is that species of composition which is opposed to works of science by proposing for its
immediate object pleasure not truth, and from all other species. It is discriminated by proposing to itself
such delight from the whole, as is compatible with a distinct gratification from each component part.
As a result the reader should be carried forward by the pleasurable activity of mind excited by the
attractions of the journey itself. The reader should be carried forward not merely or chiefly by the
mechanical impulse of curiosity or by a restless desire to arrive at the final solution.
Now Coleridge talks about the pleasure that you derived from the poetry and says that the poet
described in ideal perfection brings the whole soul of man into activity.
Coleridge differs with Wordsworth’s theory based on assumption that his words had been rightly
interpreted that the proper diction for poetry in general consists all together in a language taken with
due acceptations. According to words worth’s, language should be taken from the mouth of man.
Coleridge agrees with Wordsworth that in rustic life human soul can prosper fully but he believes that
every man is not likely to include by a country life. Coleridge accepts the principle of Aristotle that the
poetry is essentially ideal and that it avoids all accidents and feels completely individualistic in rank
and characters who represent a class. Coleridge says that a rustic language purified from all
provincialism and written as per rules of grammar than there is no difference from rustic and the
language of any other learned or refined man. Coleridge says that the literal knowledge of an educated
rustic person will provide a very scanty / limited vocabulary. The few things and modes of action
requisite for his bodily convenience that alone would be individualized whereas all the rest of nature
would be expressed by a small number of confused general terms. The nature of a man’s world, where
he is strongly affected by joy, grief of anger, must necessarily depend on the quality of the general
truth, conceptions, and images and of the words expressing them which are already stored in the mind
of a man. Words worth truly says that poetry always implies passion means all excited state of the
feelings and faculty so there is an essential difference between the language of prose and of metrical
composition. Thus, Coleridge in the end gives the above statement that there should be difference
between the language of prose and poetry.
At the end of his notes on Shakespeare, he has a passage, full of power and meaning, incidentally,
referring to the same, thought: ‘There are three powers.’
(1) Wit which discovers partial likeness hidden in general diversity.
(2) Subtlety which discovers the diversity, concealed in general apparent sameness.
(3) Profundity which discovers an essential unity under all the semblance of difference. Give a subtle
man fancy and he is a wit, to a deep man imagination and he is a philosopher.
Add again pleasurable sensibility in the interesting in morals, the impressive in form, and the
harmonious in sound and you have the poet. But combine all, wit subtlety, and fancy, with profundity
imagination, and moral and physical susceptibility of all pleasurable and let the object of action be man
universal; and we shall have – Orash prophecy! Say, rather we have – a Shakespeare! Let’s come
back to our topic that is poet and prose. Pleasure may be the immediate object of a work not metrically
composed as it is in novels and romances. Worse than the more super addition of meter, with or
without rhyme entitle these to the name of poems? The answer is that we cannot call them poems
because in the first place metrical form would not be suitable to its language and content and, secondly,
due to its length all parts would not require equal attention and therefore would not equally contribute,
to the total pleasure. ‘A poem, defines Coleridge,’

A legitimate poem defines it as , "it must be one, the parts of which mutually support and explain each
other; all in their propostion harmonizing with, and supporting the purpose and known influence of
metrical arrangement". Therefore, the legitimate poem is a composition in which the rhyme and the
metre bear an organic relation to the total work. While reading this sort of poem "the reader should be
carried forward, not merely or chiefly by the mechanical impulse of curiosity or by a restless desire to
arrive at the final solution; but by the the pleasurable activity of mind excited by the attraction of the
journey itself". Here Coleridge assert the importance of the impression created by the harmonious
whole of the poem. To him not one or other part but the entire effect, the journey of reading poem
should be pleasurable. Thus Coleridge puts an end to the age old controversy whether the end of
poem is instruction or delight. Its aim is definitely to give pleasure and further poem has its own
distinctive pleasure, pleasure arising from the parts and this pleasure of the parts supports and
increases the pleasure of the whole
“A poem of any length neither can be nor ought to be, all poetry size does not decide the quality. It
doesn't determine prose or poem too.”

His Practical Criticism—Father of Impressionistic Criticism:

A man of stupendous learning, both in philosophy and literature, ancient as well as modern, and refined
sensibility and penetrating intellect, Coleridge was eminently fitted to the task of a critic. His practical
criticism consists of his evaluations of Shakespeare and other English dramatists, and of Milton and
Wordsworth. Despite the fact there are so many digressions and repetitions, his practical criticism is
always illuminating and highly original. It is rich in suggestions of far reaching value and significance,
and flashes of insight rarely to be met with in any other critic. His greatness is well brought out, if we
keep in mind the state of practical criticism in England before him. The Neo-classic critics judged on
the basis of fixed rules, they were either legislative or judicial, or 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. His criticism is impressionistic-romantic, a new kind of
criticism, a criticism which dealt a knockout 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.

Philosophize Literary Criticism

In the field of theoretical inquiry, Coleridge was the first to introduce psychology and philosophy into
literary criticism. He was interested in the study of the process of poetic creation, the very principles of
creative activity, and for his purposes freely drew upon philosophy and psychology. He thus made
philosophy the basis of literary inquiry, and thus brought about a union of philosophy, psychology and
literary criticism. His literary theories have their bases in philosophy; he imparted to criticism the dignity
which belongs to philosophy. He philosophized literary criticism and thus brought about a better and
truer understanding of the process of creation and the nature and function of poetry.

Theory of Imagination—Revolutionized the concept of Imitation

His greatest and most original contribution to literary criticism is his theory of imagination. Addison and
examined the nature and function of imagination, had 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, the first literary critic to distinguish between primary and secondary Imagination. Through his
theory of imagination he revolutionized the concept of artistic imitation. Poetic imitation is neither a
servile copy of nature, nor 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.

Demonstration of the Organic Wholeness of Poetry

Further, as David Daiches points out," the employment of secondary imagination is a poetic activity
and we can see why Coleridge is let from a discussion of the poet's activity when we realize that for
him the poet belongs to the larger company of those who are distinguished by the activity of their
imagination By virtue of his imagination, which is a synthetic and magical power, he harmonize and
blend together various elements and thus diffuses a tone and spirit of unity over the whole. It manifests
itself most clearly in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities- such as sameness
with difference, of the general with concrete, the idea with the image, the individual with the
representative, the sense of novelty and freshness with old familiar objects, a more than usual state
of emotion with more usual order, judgment with enthusiasm. And while this imagination blends and
harmonizes the natural and artificial, it subordinates to nature, the manner to the matter and our
admiration of the poet to out sympathy with the poetry. This demonstration of the organic wholeness
of a poem is one of his major contributions to literary theory.

‘‘Willing Suspension of Disbelief”

Similarly, his theory of “Willing suspension of disbelief” marks a significant advance over earlier
theories on the subject. His view that during the perusal of a poem or the witnessing of a play, there is
neither belief nor disbelief, but a mere suspension of disbelief, is now universally accepted as correct,
and the controversy on the subject has been finally set at rest.

His Related Recognition and Influence: Its Causes

However, it may be mentioned in the end that as Coleridge’s views are too philosophical, he is a critic
not easy to understand. Often it is fragmentary and unsystematic. Victorians, in general, could not
appreciate him and his appeal was confined to the few. Says George Watson in this connection,
‘‘Coleridge’s aesthetics could not appeal to a generation of Victorians to whom no system of aesthetics
was of much interest. As a descriptive critic, his achievement is brilliant but sporadic, and he offers no
single example worthy to be advanced as a model. If his criticism survives, as it vigorously does, it is
not by virtue of what it demonstrates but by what it abundantly suggests, for no English critic has so
excelled at providing profitable points of departure for twentieth-century critics. Perhaps there is
something perverse about a professional pundit who had so little to say that was comprehensible to
his own century ; but, a hundred years later, his manuscripts, as they belatedly see print, seem among
the richest of our capital assets. They are the relics of a mind passionately in love with free inquiry,
concentrated and disciplined in its determination to decipher the secret of poetic discourse.” It is only
in the 20th century that his literary criticism has been truly understood and recognition and appreciation
have followed. To-day his reputation stands very high, and many go to him for inspiration and
illumination. Despite the fragmentary nature of his work, he is now regarded the most original critic of
England.

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.

I. A. Richards considers him as the fore-runner “of the modern science of semantics”, and Rene Wellek
is of the view that he is a link, “between German Transcendentalism and English Romanticism.”

In the 20th century Coleridge recognize as a great critic and also today his status very high and critics
also following his style of criticism and get inspiration. nevertheless the fractal nature of his work, he
is now regarded as the most genuine critic of England.

Conclusion:

To conclude, we may say in his own words, he endeavored ‘to establish the principles of writing rather
than to furnish rules about how to pass judgment on, what had been written by others.’
Thus, Coleridge is the first English critic who based his literary criticism on philosophical principles.
While a critic before him has been content to turn a poem inside out and to discourse on its merits and
demerits ; Coleridge busied himself with the basic question of, ‘how it came to be there at all.’ He was
more interested in the creative process that made it, what it was, then in the finished product.