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” Wordsworth’s “Poet” “brings the whole soul of man into Man speaking to men activity” “diffuses a tone and spirit of unity Heightened sensibility; feels more pain that blends and fuses” and pleasure than other men “synthetic and magical power” of the (hypersensitivity) imagination Has “greater knowledge of human “balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities” nature,” and a “more comprehensive soul” “ blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial” [Preface to LB, “What is a Poet?” 299 - “still subordinates art to nature” 303] (496)

MECHANIC VS. ORGANIC FORM Mechanic Form Organic Form “innate”: develops shape from “when on any given material we impress within a predetermined form, not necessarily Inner/outer mirror one another arising out of the properties of the material, as when to a mass of wet clay The result of when (secondary) we give whatever shape we wish it to imagination generates poem retain when hardened” (502) Analogous to growth of plant: energy within drives growth until it achieves organic unity or perfect form