BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

★SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

★chapter 1-13 published in 1815

★chapter 14-23 and a conclusion (totel 24) published in 1817

★First English critic to base his criticism on philosophical principles

★More interested in the creative process than in the finished product

★Coleridge's concern was "to establish the principles of writing rather than to furnish rules on how to pass judgements on what has been written by others"

★According to I A Richards, Coleridge is the founding father of all modern criticism

★Many of Coleridge's ideas are borrowed from the German philosophers like Schelling, Immanuel Kant, Lessing, Schiller and the Schlegels

Lectures on Shakespeare

The Friend

The Table Talk

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions.

➤ Partly an autobiography

➤ It is a mixture of memoir, philosophy, religion and literary theory

➤ Coleridge himself described Biographia Literaria as an 'immethodical miscellany' of 'life and opinions'.

➤ In 1906, the poet Arthur Symons called the work 'the greatest book of criticism in English, and one of the most annoying books in any language'. 

➤ Originally intended to be published as a preface to a collection of his own poems titled Sibylline Leaves (1817)

★The first part of the work consists of chapters I to XIII. It was completed in July 1815. 

★It contained his philosophical and metaphysical theories and their impact on life.

★The second part of the Biographia Literaria consists of chapters XIV to XXIII.

★This second part examines critically Wordsworth's theory of poetry and poetic diction.

★There also occurs a conclusion which is sometimes numbered as Chapter XXIV

★Some of the shaping influences on Coleridge were Wordsworth, Lessing, Kant, Hegal, Schelling etc.

★Being fluent in German, Coleridge was one of the first major English literary Critiques

★Figures to translate and discuss Schelling

★Biographia Literaria is an ill planned and incomplete work

CHAPTER 14

★Begins the chapter by talking about the origin of the Lyrical Ballads

★Wordsworth and Coleridge were neighbours

★They agreed on two cardinal points of poetry

★The power of exciting sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature

★The power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination

★Wordsworth and Coleridge decided to compose two sorts of poems

★Poems in which the incidents and agents will be supernatural

★Poems of which the subject will be drawn from ordinary life

★Lyrical Ballads were written with this plan

★Coleridge proposed to deal with characters supernatural or romantic.

★The supernatural characters will be presented with a semblance of truth.

★This semblance of truth will procure from the readers a willing suspension of disbelief.

★Another term for willing suspension of disbelief is poetic faith

★Wordsworth proposed to give the charm of novelty to things of everyday

★This charm of novelty given to things of everyday would awaken the mind from the lethargy of custom

★Direct the mind to the loveliness and wonders of the world

★People fail to appreciate the loveliness and wonders of the world for two reasons

-Film of familiarity

-Selfish solicitude

★Film of familiarity-we have eyes yet see not, ears that hear not and hearts that neither feel nor understand

★In accordance with the proposed plan, Coleridge wrote the following poems:

-Ancient Mariner

-The Dark Ladie

-Christabel

The plan did not succeed on account of the following reasons

★Wordsworth (19) wrote more poems than Coleridge (4)

★Coleridge's poems looked like an interpolation in a collection by Wordsworth

★Wordsworth wrote two or three poems quite different from the proposed style

★These poems were written in the impassioned, lofty and dignified diction.

★Coleridge observes that it is the characteristic of Wordsworth's poetic genius

★Coleridge observes that when published first, (1798) the advertisement of Lyrical Ballads stated that it was an experiment

★This experimental style rejected the ornamental and extra colloquial style of Neoclassical poetry 

★In preface of the Second edition of the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth insisted on extending this experimental style to all kinds of poetry Wordsworth insisted on the language of real life as the language of poetry

★Coleridge calls "language of real life" an equivocal expression

★The preface(1800) created long and continued controversy

★Coleridge states his position on the controversial subjects

★Wordsworth's critics dismissed his poems as silly and Childish

★They described his poems as being characterised by meanness of language and inanity of throught

★Coleridge disagrees with such observations

★If Wordsworth's poems were to be mean, they would have sunk into the slough of oblivion 

★instead, year after year the number of his admirers have increased

★Young men of strong ability and meditation of mind constitute his admirers

★They admire Wordsworth with almost a religious fervour

★Coleridge disagrees with Wordsworth for several reasons

★Some propositions of the Preface were erroneous in terms of the principles of poetry 

★Some propositions were contradictory with regard to the arguments in certain other parts of the Preface

★Some propositions were contradictory to Wordsworth's own practice of writing poetry

★Since Coleridge's name is dragged into the controversy, he proposes to make his position clear 

★He gives this theory of poetry which is different from Wordsworth's position in many respect 

DEFINITION OF POETRY

★First Coleridge proposes to define poem and poetry

★He defines poetry by the principles of philosophy

★He says any poetic form should be subjected to Analysis and synthesis

★Analysis and synthesis helps us to understand the principles of composition

★The principles of composition varies from one another based on the object (aim) proposed 

★A poem is a composition which is different from prose either by the addition of meter or rhyme or both conjointly

★The immediate object of such compositions is pleasure

★There may be some other compositions in which the immediate object is truth

★In works of science, the immediate object is truth Ace In History also the aim is to record facts

★Poetry is different from works of science because its immediate object is pleasure, not truth

★Romances or novels also have pleasure as their immediate object

★But a novel or romance cannot impart pleasure in part but a poem can

★Therefore Coleridge famously defined 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 ratification from each component part.

★While reading a poem the reader is not 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 pleasurable activity of mind excited by the attractions of the inurney itself

★Coleridge famously used a few examples to describe the process of reading a poem

★It is like the motion of a serpent

★The Egyptians made the emblem of intellectual power

★Like the path of sound through the air

★Coleridge uses an expression from Petronius Arbiter

★Precipitandus est liber spiritus meaning the free spirit must be hurried onward.

★Coleridge then argues that poetry of the highest kind may even exist without meter

★He considers the writings of Plato, Bishop Taylor and Thomas Burnet to be the highest kind of poetry

★The first chapter of Isaiah (indeed a very large proportion of the whole book) is poetry in the most emphatic sense

★But one should remember here that the immediate object of the poet was not pleasure but truth

★This shows that poetry is not a quality of poem alone

★There may or may not be poetry in a poem

★There may also be poetry in prose compositions

★There may also be poetry in compositions whose immediate object is truth

★Real poetry is produced by a poetic genius

Who is then a poetic genius?

★A poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity, with the subordination of its faculties to each other, according to their relative worth and dignity

★The poet works with the power called imagination

★Coleridge also describes it as “synthetic and magical power" 

★Imagination is first put in action by the will and understanding

★Then it laxis effertur habenis, meaning it is carried onwards with loose reins

★Imagination blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial

★Imagination subordinates art to nature; the manner to the matter; and our admiration of the poet to our sympathy with the poetry

Coleridge concludes Chapter XIV with the famous statement: 

★GOOD SENSE is the BODY of poetic genius, FANCY its DRAPERY, MOTION its LIFE, and IMAGINATION the SOUL

PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS

➤The idea of Lyrical Ballads was conceived when Wordsworth and Coleridge were living as neighbours in the Quantocks

➤ Lyrical Ballads was originally published in September, 1798

➤ The 1798 edition of the Lyrical Ballads carried an Advertisement

➤ The second edition of the poems was published in two volumes which bore the date 1800, though they were not issued until January 1801

➤ In the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads, the Advertisement was replaced with a Preface

➤ The Preface was revised in 1802.

➤ In the 1802 edition a passage discussing the question "What is a Poet" was inserted

➤ As different from the 1800 edition, Wordsworth also included an Appendix on Poetic Diction in the 1802 edition

➤ There are no remarkable changes in the 1805 edition, except for a few typographical differences

➤ It is the honourable characteristic of poetry that its materials are to be found in every subject which can interest the human mind

➤ The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments

➤ They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure. 

➤ Against the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers-Neoclassical

➤ Critiqued by the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Review

➤ Wordsworth was forced to defend himself:

➤The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to make the incidents of common life interesting

➤Low and rustic life was generally chosen because in that situation the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language

➤ Because in that situation our elementary feelings exist in a state of greater simplicity and consequently may be more accurately contemplated and more forcibly communicated

➤ Such a subject matter is more durable

➤ Without social vanity they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions

PREFACE

➤ Begins the Preface by pointing out that the First Volume of the poems was published as an experiment to ascertain, how far a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation was fitting to metrical arrangement to impart the sort of pleasure which may be imparted by poetry

➤ Wordsworth mentions the collaboration between himself and Coleridge

➤ The two decided to collaborate as their tendencies in poetry were similar and as their opinions on the subject of poetry entirely coincided

➤ Wordsworth did not include a Preface to the first edition as it would seem he was writing it with the intention of forcing his poems on the readers

➤ A preface is included in the second edition Advised by friends

➤ Since the poems in the collection violate the expectations of readers

➤The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to make the incidents of common life interesting

➤ Low and rustic life was generally chosen because in that situation the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language

➤ Because in that situation our elementary feelings exist in a state of greater simplicity and consequently may be more accurately contemplated and more forcibly communicated

➤ Such a subject matter is more durable

➤ Without social vanity they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions

➤This language is far more philosophical

➤The Poems in these volumes will be found distinguished at least by one mark of difference, that each of them has a worthy purpose

➤Wordsworth lists his purposes

➤To illustrate the manner in which our feelings and ideas are associated in a state of excitement

➤To follow the fluxes and refluxes of the mind when agitated by great and simple affections of our nature

➤To sketch characters of which the elements are simple belonging rather to nature than to manners-some of the poems composed with this purpose are Old Man Travelling, The Two Thieves

➤To enlarge the capability of the human mind to excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulus

➤Wordsworth writes more about the language of the poems included in the volume

➤Except in a very few instances the Reader will find no personifications of abstract ideas in these volumes

LANGUAGE :

➤In these Poems I propose to myself to imitate, and, as far as possible, to adopt the very language of men, and I do not find that such personifications make any regular or natural part of that language

➤There will also be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic diction [neoclassical diction] I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it; this I have done for the reason already alleged, to bring my language near to the language of men.

➤Wordsworth claims that in this experiment what he has gained is good sense

➤What he misses in this experiment is a large portion of phrases and figures of speech which from father to son have long been regarded as the common inheritance of Poets.

➤Not only the language of a large portion of every good poem, even of the most elevated character, must necessarily, except with reference to the metre, in no respect differ from that of good prose

➤ Similarly, some of the most interesting parts of the best poems will be found to be strictly the language of prose when prose is well written

➤ To prove that there is no much difference between the language of poetry and that of prose. Wordsworth cites line from Thomas Gray because he is one of those poets who endeavoured to widen the gap between prose and poetry

➤ The quoted lines are from the Sonnet on the Death of Richard West by Thomas Gray.

➤ We are fond of tracing the resemblance between Poetry and Painting, and, accordingly, we call them Sisters

➤ More affinity exists betwixt metrical and prose composition

➤ They both speak by and to the same organs; the bodies in which both of them are clothed may be said to be of the same substance, their affections are kindred and almost identical.The same human blood circulates through the veins of them both

➤ Rhyme and metrical arrangement should not be based on the arbitrary and infinite caprices of the poets as in the case of Neoclassical writing

➤ Instead of the this meter and rhyme should obey certain laws, the law of passion and therefore both the poet and the reader willingly submit to it on their own

➤ Wordsworth points out that Alexander Pope by the power of his verse, rhymed verse and meter, managed to render the plainest commonsense interesting

➤ Since Wordsworth is convinced of this power of verse form he wrote in meter the poems Goody Blake and Harry Gill

➤ Wordsworth's theory of poetry is an expressive theory of art as opposed to the mimetic theory

➤ The expressive theory considers art as an expression of the inner soul/ or emotions of the poet

➤ Poetry is conceived as insight rather than skill and hence it is an exalted conception of art

➤ Wordsworth's theory of poetry was shaped by his exposure to the Associationist Psychology of David Hartley

➤ At an early stage of his life, Wordsworth was a member of the Godwin circle in London which deplored the role of emotion in human affairs 

➤ Soon Wordsworth came under the influence of David Hartley

➤ Hartley taught that sensations (elemental ideas) produced vibrations in the nervous system. He held (with Locke) that the mind was a "blank slate" until sensation introduced simple ideas into it; hence, sensation was the basis of all knowledge

➤ For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; taking its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility

➤ The poetic composition is not an easy process. The poetic composition has to pass through four stages: recollection, contemplation, recrudescence and composition

➤ "poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science"

➤ "the most Philosophical of all writings"

➤ "the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge"

➤ "the image of man and nature.''

➤ In one of his poems he says that, "Every great poet is a teacher; I wish either to be considered as a teacher, or as nothing.

➤ In one of the celebrated passages of the Excursion he writes that poetry has its value and significance in framing models, "to improve the scheme of man's existence and re-cast the world."

➤ [Poet] He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to common among mankind

➤ Poems to which any value can be attached, were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility had also thought long and deeply

➤The poet is a man speaking to man

➤ He has a greater knowledge of human nature

➤ Greater imagination

➤ Greater power of expression and communication

FUNCTION OF POETRY

➤ As for the function of poetry, Wordsworth maintains that it is,"to produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure."

➤ His insistence on pleasure as the primary aim of poetry, the poet differs from the Neo classics who considered that the aim of poetry was both to "instruct and delight".

➤ Thus the proper function of poetry is to give pleasure, but Wordsworth's conception of pleasure is not a purely aesthetic one. His conception of pleasure is moral

➤ Poetry does provide such momentary pleasure, and it is provided by the use of metre, rhyme, and such other external aids which temper and soften even the painful emotions. 

➤ But such pleasure is not the real aim of poetry. Poetry aims at a pleasure which is much higher, the pleasure which stems from the realization of truth, from inner enlightenment, and from the strengthening and purification of the emotions.

➤ Poetry makes the readers saner and purer than before.

➤ Poetry is the instrument of the propagation of moral thoughts.

➤ Poetry also plays a role of science, as it is the source of pleasure, like science, it also pursues, truth and truth when discovered and communicated is always commendable. It adds to our knowledge of human life and human nature, and makes us wiser and nobler. A

➤ The discovery of its truths are not through the 'meddling intellect', but through imagination and intuition.

➤ That is why its truths are universal and general, while the truths of science are merely personal and particular

➤ Moreover, the truths of science can be enjoyed only by the scientist, while the truths of poetry are common to all, as it is a source of pleasure to all.