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The contents of this chapter include all of the following: Coleridge does not give his clear cut conception of Poetry but we have ascertained from his Biographia Literia. For Wordsworth the vitalityof the poet’s perception seemed to guarantee both its own justness and liveliness, and the whole from content problem is left in the air.In attempting to remedy this defect in Wordsworth argument.Coleridge puts the philosophical inquiry into the nature and value of poetry on an entirely new footing.
COLERIDGE’S CONCEPT OF POETRY • Coleridge does not give his clear cut conception of Poetry but we have ascertained from his Biographia Literia • For Wordsworth the vitalityof the poet’s perception seemed to guarantee both its own justness and liveliness, and the whole from content problem is left in the air.In attempting to remedy this defect in Wordsworth argument.Coleridge puts the philosophical inquiry into the nature and value of poetry on an entirely new footing • Unfortunately never summed up his view of the nature and value of poetry in a brief and cogent essay.The nearest we can get to a single shot essay summing up his view of poetry is the famous fourteenth chapter of his Biographia Literaria and somewhat cryptic paragraph on the imagination in chapter thirteenth.we can study his conception of poetry under three headings • Definition and function of poetry • Poetry for coleridge is a wider category than that of a poem I.e.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 largest sense brings the whole soul of men into activity with each faculty playing its proper part according to its relative worth and dignity.Coleridge defines through the exercise of his imagination • Poetry in its largest sense is the regulative idea of all the fine arts and in its narrow sense it may be caled a poem ”it is the excitement of emotions for the purpose of immediate pleasure through the medium of beauty” • (a) Excitement of Emotions: Like all the romantic poets and critics coleridge stresses the necessity if feelings or emotions or passion but it is the minds of the poets that he is here speaking of The essential thing in poetry is that the poet is here to arouse the emotions in others So art for coleridge does not exist to satisfy the creative impulse of the artist but tu communicate his state of mind to others Poetry should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts • (b) Immediate Pleasure: Here pleasure is contrasted with truth which is the object of science and it is immediate because it is derived from the experience solely and for its own sake and it is what we should call a disinterested pleasure.It does not arouse pleasure by reason of some other satisfaction that might be implied • The pleasurable experience derived from a work of art is its own intrinsic pleasure and none other It may as scott james explains happens to be useful ,moral,instructive , health giving but it is not for these results that it is pursued or for any results other than the pleasure arising directly from it • (c) Through the medium of poetry: It is not enough to set up pleasure as the purpose it is pleasure arising through the medium of beauty Kings please us because they are beautiful.This satisfaction is of a specific kind and is possible to all though coleridge seems to hold that it can only be experienced fully by men of much sensibility ,whose faculties have been trained to appreciate the beautiful when they see it • So coleridge,s definition of art is not complete until he has given us his definition of beauty According to him in unity lies the essence of beautiful;the sense of beauty subsists in simultaneous intuition of the relation of parts ,each to each and of all to a whole Difference between Prose and Poetry • Coleridge describes that a poem contains same element as prose composition ,the difference must be there in the combination in consequence of a different object being proposed.Both prose and poetry use words the difference then of course cannot lie in the medium • A poet combines words differently because it is seekin to something rhymed and metrical compositions are easy to remember.Rhyme yields a particular pleasure to though not of a very high order.But it must be kept in mind that rhyme and metre not arise from the nature of the content So this is not very profound either • Coleridge further describes that difference of object and contents supplies initial grounds of distinction.The philosopher will seek to differentiate between the two ways of handling language by asking what each seeks to achieve and how that aim determine its nature • The immediate purpose may be the communication of truth or the communication of pleasure.The communication of truth might in turn yield a deep pleasure but coleridge insists one must distinguish between the ultimate and immediate end, the proper kind of distinction between different kinds of writing can thus be the most logically discussed in terms of difference in the immediate aim or function of each the immediate aim of poetry is to give pleasure that of prose to give truth Qualities in a Poem • In biographia literaria coleridge discusses practical criticism here he seeks to discover the traits of poetry which may be deemed promising and specific symptoms of poetic power he examines four good qualities that are important for all good poems • (a) The Perfect sweetness of Versification.The first quality that he points out is perfect sweetness of versification the sense of musical delight with the power of producing it is either born ion man or never appears it cannot be acquired • (b) No Private interest in the choice of subjects The second promise of genius is in the choice of subject very remote from the private interest and circumstances of the writer the readers attention is all the more engaged by the utter aloofness of the poets own feeling from those of which he is at one the painter and the analyst • The point made by coleridge is twofold there should be detachment and disinterestedness first in the choice of subject matter second in the treatment of it.It is of the essence of artistic creation to be able to extend the range of human interest beyond those things which the individual has personal experience • ( c) Energy of Thought:Third characteristic which coleridge discusses is depth and energy of thought.No man was ever yet a great poet without being at the same time a profound philosopher it does not mean the the purpose of poetry is to expound intellectual views of shakespeare he writes that he first studied patiently ,meditatded deeply,understood minutely till knowledge became habitual and intuitive • (d) A Predominant Passion: Images however beautiful fatefully copied from nature not of themselves characterize the poet they become proofs original genius only as far as they are modified by a predominant passion or by associated thought s or images awakened by that passion or when they have the effect of reducing multitude to unity or succession to an instant or lastly when ahuamn and intellectual lif eis transferred to them from the poets own spirit which shoots iys being through earth sea and air ... his view of poetry is the famous fourteenth chapter of his Biographia Literaria and somewhat cryptic paragraph on the imagination in chapter thirteenth.we can study his conception of poetry under... poetry under three headings • Definition and function of poetry • Poetry for coleridge is a wider category than that of a poem I.e .poetry is a kind of activity which can be engaged in by painters or... lies the essence of beautiful;the sense of beauty subsists in simultaneous intuition of the relation of parts ,each to each and of all to a whole Difference between Prose and Poetry • Coleridge