BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA Samuel Taylor Coleridge WHAT IS A POEM? A - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

WHAT IS A POEM?

“A poem contains the same elements as a prose composition; the difference therefore must consist in a different combination of them” (493) “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.” (494) “The reader should be carried forward…by the pleasurable activity of mind excited by the attractions of the journey itself” (495) Ideal movement of reading (495)

WHAT IS A POET?

“brings the whole soul of man into activity” “diffuses a tone and spirit of unity that blends and fuses” “synthetic and magical power” of the imagination “balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities” Novelty and freshness + old and familiar objects “blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial” “still subordinates art to nature”

 Recall: “Frost at Midnight”  Compare: Wordsworth’s definition of the poet (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, [Norton 299])

COLERIDGE VS. WORDSWORTH: “THE POET”

Coleridge’s “Poet”

“brings the whole soul of man into activity” “diffuses a tone and spirit of unity that blends and fuses” “synthetic and magical power” of the imagination “balance or reconciliation of

• pposite or discordant qualities”

“blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial” “still subordinates art to nature” (496)

Wordsworth’s “Poet”

Man speaking to men Heightened sensibility; feels more pain and pleasure than other men (hypersensitivity) Has “greater knowledge of human nature,” and a “more comprehensive soul” [Preface to LB, “What is a Poet?” 299- 303]

MECHANIC VS. ORGANIC FORM

Mechanic Form

“when on any given material we impress a predetermined form, not necessarily arising out of the properties of the material, as when to a mass of wet clay we give whatever shape we wish it to retain when hardened” (502)

Organic Form

“innate”: develops shape from within Inner/outer mirror one another The result of when (secondary) imagination generates poem Analogous to growth of plant: energy within drives growth until it achieves organic unity

• r perfect form