BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

Introduction ( Poetry foundation)

Philosopher, poet, and religious and political theorist Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devonshire, England,
and attended the University of Cambridge. In 1795 Coleridge met poet William Wordsworth, with whom he was
to work closely. Under Wordsworth’s influence, Coleridge’s poetry shifted to a more conversational voice and
began to find inspiration in daily life. In 1796 Coleridge published his first poetry collection, Poems on Various
Subjects, and from 1797 to 1798 he lived close to Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy in Somersetshire.

Coleridge and Wordsworth collaboratively published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, marking the rise of the British
Romantic movement. According to Coleridge, in their collaborative plans it was agreed Coleridge would compose
a series of lyrical poems exploring the Romantic and supernatural, and seeking there to earn a readers’ “poetic
faith,” while Wordsworth planned to use the self and the everyday as his subject in poems that would replace a
sense of familiarity with an air of the supernatural. Pairing these two approaches, the poets hoped, might bring
into harmony “the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful
adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colors of
imagination.”

Coleridge contributed his well-known poem, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” while Wordsworth ultimately
composed the bulk of the collection. After the publication of Lyrical Ballads, the pair traveled throughout Europe.
Afterwards, Coleridge lectured and traveled extensively, and, while battling an opium addiction, moved in with
physician James Gillman in 1816. The following year Biographia Literaria, a fusion of autobiography, literary
criticism, and religious and philosophical theory, was published.

While consistently praising Wordsworth’s creative work, Coleridge was unhappy that when the second edition of
the book was published, Wordsworth added a preface containing a statement of poetics emphasizing the
“language of ordinary life,” which Coleridge considered to be a significant departure from the collaborative
impulse that shaped the work.

In this rebuttal, Coleridge considers the elements of a poem—sound and meter, communication, pleasure, and
emotional affect—as they function together. On attempts to shape a work into meter, or consciously add any of
these elements to a poem, Coleridge notes, “nothing can permanently please, which does not contain in itself the
reason why it is so, and not otherwise.” Emphasizing the harmony of these elements as what sustains a poem,
Coleridge describes the reader’s path through such a poem as “like the motion of a serpent . . . or like the path of
sound through the air; at every step he pauses and half recedes, and from the retrogressive movement collects the
force which again carries him onward.”
GENERAL ESTIMATE OF CH:14 BIOGHRAPHIA LITERARIA: COLERIDGE
 * Introduction:-

                           The written monuments of Coleridge’s critical work is contained in 24 chapter of Biographic
Literaria (1815-17).In this critical disquision, Coleridge consents himself not only with the practice of criticism,
but also, with its theory. In his practical approach to criticism, we get the glimpse of Coleridge the poet; whereas
in theoretical discussion, Coleridge the Philosopher came to the center stage.
                            In chapter XIV (14) of Biographic Literaria, Coleridge’s view on nature and function of poetry
in discussed in philosophical terms .The poet within Coleridge discusses the difference between poetry and prose,
and the immediate function of poetry, whereas the philosopher discusses the difference between poetry and poem.
He was the first English writer to insist that every work of art is, by its very nature, an organic whole. At the first
step he rules out the  assumption, which, from Horace onwards, had wrought such havoc in critism, that the object
of poetry is to instruct; or, as a less extreme from of the heresy had asserted, to make men morally better. 

 * Explanation of Coleridge’s view in ch.14 

     Biographic Literaria:-

Coleridge begins this chapter with his views on two cardinal points of poetry.Two cardinal points of poetry :

1          The power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of 
        Nature, and……..
2      The power of giving the interest of novelty by modifying with the colors of imagination.
      
According to him, it was decided that words worth would write poetry dealing with the theme of first cardinal
point and the other was to be dealt by him.
For the first type of poetry, the treatment and subject matter should be, to quote Coleridge,

“The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which moon-light or sun-set diffused over a known and
familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combing both.”

These are the poetry of Nature

            In such poems, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such,
as will be found in every village and its vicinity, where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them,
or to notice them, when they present themselves.
            In the second type of poetry, the incidents and agents were to be Supernatural. In this sort of poetry, to
quote Coleridge, “The excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth
of such emotions as would naturally accompany such situation, supposing them real. And real in this sense they
have been to every human being at any time believed himself under Supernatural agency.” Thus with the help of
imagination the natural will be dealt supernaturally by the poet and the reader will comprehend it with “willing
Suspension of disbelief.”
           
The Lyrical Ballads consists of poems dealing with these two cardinal points. Wherein, the Endeavour of
Coleridge was to deal with “Persons and characters Supernatural”, and that of words worth “was to give the
charm of novelty to things of every day, by awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and
directing in to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us.        

* In defense of words worth’s poetic Creed:-

Coleridge, even though he did not agree with words worth’s views on poetic diction, vindicated his poetic creed
in chapter: 14 of Biographic Literary. Coleridge writers in defense to the violent assailant to the, “Language of
real Life” adopted by words worth in the lyrical Ballads.

            There had been strong criticism against words worth’s view expressed in preface also              
Coleridge writes in his defense: “Had Mr. Words worth's poems been the silly, the childish things, which they
were for a long time describe as being; had they been really distinguished from the composition of other poets
merely by manners of language and inamity of thought, had they indeed contended nothing more than what is
found in the parodies and pretended initatial of them; euust have sunk at once, a dead weight into the slough of
oblivion, and have dragged the preface along with them.”
            Thus, Coleridge gives full credit to the genius of words worth.
It does not dean that he agreed with words worth on all points.
            “ With many parts of this preface in the sense attributed to them and which the words undoubtedly seem to
authorize, I never concurred; but on the contrary objected to them as erroneous in principle, and as contradictory
(in appearance at least) both to other parts of the same preface, and to the author’s own practice in the greater
number of the poems themselves. Mr. Words worth in his recent collection has, I find, degraded this prefatory
disquisition to the end of his second volume, to be read or not at the reader’s choice.”

* Distinguish between prose and poem:-

·      The poem contains the same elements as a prose the elements as a prose composition.
·      But the difference is between the combination of those elements and objects aimed at in both the
composition.
·      If the object of the poet may simply be to facilitate the memory to recollect certain fact, he would make use
of certain artificial arrangement of words with the help of meter.
·      As a result composition will be a poem, early because it is distinguished from composition in prose by meteor
by rhyme. In this, the lowest sense one might attribute the name of a poem to well known enumeration of the days
in the several month;
                        Thirty days hath September,
                        April, June, and November, & C.
      Thus, to Coleridge, mere super addition of meter or rhyme does not make a poem.
He further elucidates his view point by various prose writings and its immediate purpose and ultimate and. In
scientific and Historical composition, the immediate purpose is to convey the truth. In the prose works of other
kinds, to give pleasure in the immediate purpose and the ultimate and may be to give truth.Thus, the
communication of pleasure may be the immediate object of a work note metrically composed.
·      Now the question is “would then the mere super addition of meter, with or without rhyme, entitle these to the
name of poem?”
·      To the Coleridge replies that if meter is super added the other part of the composition also must harmonies
with it. In order to deserve the name poem each part of the composition, including meter, rhyme, diction and
theme must harmony with the wholeness of the composition.
·      Meter should not be added to provide merely a superficial decorative charm. nothing can permently please,
which does not contain it self the reason why it is so, and not otherwise. If meter is super added, all other, parts
must be made constant with it. They all must harmony with each other.
·      A poem, there for, may be defined as, 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 it self such delight from the whole, as it compatible with and distinct gratification from each component part.
                         Thus, according to Coleridge, the poem is distinguished from prose compositions by its immediate
object. The immediate object of prose is e to give truth and that of poem is to please. He again distinguishes those
prose compositions from poem whose object is similar to poem i.e. to please. He calls this poem a legitimate
poem and defines it as, “it must be one, the part of which mutually support and explain each other; all in their
proportion harmonizing with, and supporting the
Should be carried forward, note nearly or chiply by the mechanical impulse of curiosity or by a restless desire to
arrive at the final solution; but by the pleasurable activity of mind excited by the attraction of the journey itself.”
Coleridge puts an end to the age old controversy whether the end of poem is instruction or delight.
* Coleridge views on ‘Imagination’ & ‘Fancy’:-                                                       

    
     
   In chapter XIV of biographia literaria, Coleridge writes “The Imagination then he consider either as primary, or
secondary. The primary imagination he holds to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and
as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite he was. The secondary Coleridge
consider as an echo of the former, coexisting with the conscious will, yet still as identical with the primary in the
kind of agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in
order to recreate; or where this process is rendered impossible. Yet still, at all events, it struggles to idealize and to
unify. It is essentially vital, event as all objects are essentially fixed and dead”

·       Fancy:-
             
              Fancy, on the contrary, has no other counters to play with but fixities and definite. The fancy is indeed no
other than a mode of memory emancipated from the other order of time and space; and blended with, and
modified that empirical phenomenon of the will which he expresses by the word choice. But equally with the
ordinary memory it must receive all its materials ready made from the law of association.

·       Imagination:-

               In chapter XIV of the book he calls imagination, a magical and synthetic power, and add, “this power,
first put in action by the will and understanding and retained under their remissive, though binding gentle and
unnoticed, control, reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities: of sameness,
with difference; of the general. With the concrete; the idea, with the , image the individual, with the
representative, the sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar object; a more then usual state of
emotion, with more than usual order; judgment ever awake and steady self-possession, with enthusiasm and
feeling profound or vehement; and while it blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial, still subordinates
art to nature: the manner to the matter; and our admiration of the poet to our sympathy with the poetry.”

1.   Primary Imagination:-

It is the power of perceiving the object of sense, both in their parts and as awhole.It is an involuntary act of the
mind: the human mind receives impressions and sensations from the out side world, unconsciously and
involuntarily, it imposes some sort of order on those impressions, reduces them to shape and size, so that the mind
is able to form a clear image of the out side world. It is in this way that clear and coherent perception becomes
possible.

2.   Secondary Imagination:-

Secondary imagination which makes artistic creation possible. It is more active and conscious in its working. It
requires an effort of the will, volition and conscious afford. It works upon what is perceived by the primary
imagination, its raw material is the sensations and impression supplied to it by the primary imagination. By and
effort of the will and the intellect, the secondary imagination selects and orders the row material, and reshapes and
remodels it into objects of beauty. The external world and steeps then with a glory and dream that never was on
sea and land. It is an active agent which,   
 “Dissolves, diffuses, and dissipates, in order to create.”
             
            This secondary imagination is at the root of all poetic activity. It is the power which harmonies and
reconciles opposites, and hence Coleridge calls it a magical, synthetic power. This unifying power of the
imagination is best seen in the fact that it synthesizes of fuses the various faculties of the soul-perception,
intellect, will, emotion and fuses the internal with the external the subjective with the objective, the human mind
with external nature, the spiritual with the physical or material, it is through the play of this unifying power that
nature is colored by the soul of the poet, and soul of the poet is steeped in nature.

             ‘The identity’ which the post discovers in man and nature results from the synthesizing activity of the
secondary imagination.

               Coleridge explains the point by quoting two passages from Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis. The
following lines from this poem serve to illustrate Fancy:

Full gently now she takes him by the hand

Ivory in an lily poisoned in a goal of snow

            “Doubtless,” as sir John Davies observes of the soul (and his words may with slight alteration be applied,
and even more appropriately to the poetic Imagination)

Doubtless this could not be, but that she turns

Bodies to spirit by sublimation strange…..

            Finally, Good SENSE is the BODY of poetic genius, FANCY its DRAPERY MOTION its LIFE, and
IMAGINATION the SOUL that is every where, and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent
whole.

* Originality of Coleridge’s views – comparison with words worth:-

·         Coleridge owed his interest in the study of imagination to Wordsworth.

·         Wordsworth was interested only in the practice of poetry and he considered only the impact of imagination
on poetry.
·         Coleridge is the first critic to study the nature of imagination and examine its role in creative activity.

·         Secondly, while words worth uses fancy and Imagination almost as synonyms, Coleridge is the first critic
to distinguish between then and define their respective roles. Thirdly, Wordsworth does not distinguish between
primary and secondary imagination.
·         Coleridge’s treatment of the subject is, on the whole, characterized by greater depth, penetration and
philosophical subtlety.
·         It is his unique contribution to literacy theory.

* Conclusion:-
 To conclude, we may say in his own words, he endeavored ‘to establish the principles of writing rather than to
furnish runes 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
critics before him had 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.