Coleridge definition of poem and poetry. How does Coleridge define the nature and function of poetry? 2022-11-08
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In his Biographia Literaria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge defines poetry as "the best words in the best order." This simple yet profound statement captures the essence of Coleridge's understanding of the art form. For him, poetry was not just about stringing together a series of words or rhymes, but about finding the perfect combination of language and structure to convey a specific emotion or idea.
According to Coleridge, the key to good poetry lies in the way that it is able to evoke emotion in the reader. He believed that the best poems were those that were able to tap into the reader's deepest feelings and emotions, and that this was achieved through the use of carefully chosen words and the arrangement of those words in a particular order.
Coleridge also believed that poetry should be characterized by a sense of unity and coherence. He argued that a poem should be like a single, unified whole, with all of its parts working together to create a cohesive and harmonious whole. This meant that the poet needed to carefully consider the structure of their work, as well as the way in which individual words and phrases were arranged in relation to one another.
In addition to these formal qualities, Coleridge believed that good poetry should also be characterized by a sense of imagination and creativity. For him, poetry was not just about reproducing the world as it was, but about exploring new ideas and creating new worlds through the power of language. This meant that poets had to be willing to take risks and push the boundaries of what was considered acceptable or conventional in their work.
Overall, Coleridge's definition of poetry and the poem highlights the importance of emotion, unity, coherence, and imagination in the art form. By emphasizing the role of language and structure in creating powerful and meaningful works, Coleridge laid the foundations for a rich and enduring tradition of poetry that continues to thrive to this day.
S. T. Coleridge: Function of Poetry
He also examines the ways in which poetry differs from other kinds of artistic activity, and the role and significance of metre as an essential and significant part of a poem. In the prose works of other kinds romances and novels , to give pleasure in the immediate purpose and the ultimate end may be to give truth. This compels the readers to accept the supernatural as something natural. The communication of truth might in turn yield a deep pleasure, but, Coleridge insists, one must distinguish between the ultimate and the immediate end. Hort while teaching a Young Lady some Song-tunes on his Flute "Hush!.
In both cases the language varies from person to person, class to class, and place to place. He was the first English writer to insist that every work of art is, by its very nature, an organic whole. Likewise, though Coleridge was accused of being a renegade, he claimed that he had adhered to principles rather than loyalty to nation or political party. His supernaturalism is psychological, suggestive, and refined; not crude and sensational like that of Scott. Metrical Experiments The Proper Unmodified Dochmius i. Thus, among the succeeding poets, there is scarcely one who consciously or unconsciously has not sought some ideal, very likely the standard of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel.
The poem ends by discounting the pantheist spirit, and the speaker concludes by privileging God and Christ over nature and praising them for having healed him from the spiritual wounds inflicted by these unorthodox views. How is it different from poem? Coleridge argues that the language of written prose differs from the ordinary conversation; in the same way, reading differs from talking. Poetic creativity is basically an activity of imagination he identifies imagination with the soul of poetry. Except in non-figurative work, that vocabulary has to represent visual reality but also a host of other, often more demanding criteria — pleasing composition, colour balance, harmony of mood, etc. Afterwards, we are unconsciously drawn to the supernatural picture of the woman sobbing for her demon-lover by the description of the up-normal beauty of that spot, which had a magical haunting.
Coleridge’s criticism of Wordswoth’s theory of poetic dictionlanguage and poetry
Coleridge acknowledges that poetry is formed from the same elements as prose; the difference lies in the different combination of these elements and the difference of purpose BL, II, 11. The BL, I, 82—83. The answer to the one is involved in the solution of the other. Coleridge eventually took his place in the tradition of English conservatism, on which he exerted considerable influence. His essay on Wordsworth has been regarded by Thomas M. Therefore, the poem achieves a perfect union of dream-work and brain-work, created out of the stuff that dreams are made on. Thus, the purely marvelous element which Coleridge allowed on the surface of The Ancient Mariner is here driven behind the scene.
However, his greatest romantic poems include: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , Christabel and Kubla Khan on whom the reputation of Coleridge as a poet chiefly lies. A poem therefore may be defined as 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 it compatible with a distinct gratification from each component part. His surroundings are stunningly realistic. They spring from the general causes, which produce similar feelings in urban life or the country. A long poem, therefore, would not be all poetry. Fragments Elisa "Sweet Gift! To Lord Stanhope on reading his Late Protest in the House of Lords. Even John Shawcross in Biographia Literaria with Aesthetical Essays — 1907 Ed.
Zarna Bhatti Assignment: Coleridge's view on poem and poetry, a critical analysis
Everything is mysterious, leaving the readers guessing. Its aim is definitely to give pleasure, and further poetry has its own distinctive pleasure, pleasure arising from the parts, and this pleasure of the parts supports and increases the pleasure of the whole. For instance, the effective medieval rhymes and tricks of alliteration see lines: 103, 104. Lyricism is the development of a protest. Coleridge was to be followed by many others, both radical and conservative, in his reaction against the reduction of thought and language to a literal, aggregative character. But the aesthetic handling is maladroit. Furthermore, the poet uses in the poem all the resources of the old ballad meter, yet never exaggerates them.
An introduction to the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The philosopher will seek to differentiate between two ways of handling language by asking what each seeks to achieve and how that aim determines its nature. And there I felt thee! Written in August 1792. Coleridge is more musical than Wordsworth. The communication of truth might in turn yield a deep pleasure, but, Coleridge insists, one must distinguish between the ultimate and the immediate end. Moreover, the charm exercised by Geraldine has a vague twilight glimmer which stuns by its mystic shadowiness.
Wordsworth advocates metre for several reasons. This is the time of his visit to Germany. A poem naturally partakes this general object of poetry but it has a form, too, which distinguishes it from other kinds of compositions. And it is certainly on these that the final judgement of Coleridge rests. Here, the purely physical marvels are in the background, and merely presented rather through suggestion than direct assertion.
Coleridge’s Criticism of Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetry And Poetic Diction
Besides, he is also known for his major prose work Biographia Literaria. Hence Coleridge sees the precepts and duties inscribed in religion as an expression of reason itself. We cannot even be certain that the weird scenes which the Mariner describes are actual occurrences or products of his heated or overwrought imagination. Interestingly, and somewhat ironically, though Coleridge and ideal, that it avoids and excludes all accident; that its apparent individualities of rank, character, or occupation must be representative of a class; and that the persons of poetry must be clothed with generic attributes, with the common attributes of the class; not with such as one gifted individual might possibly possess, but such as from his situation. Stanzas Addressed to a Lady on Her Recovery With Unblemished Looks, From a Severe Attack of Pain "'Twas my last waking thought, how it could be" 1826 1827 Constancy to an Ideal Object "Since all that beat about in Nature's range," 1826? The night is chilly, but not dark. To support the claim that his imaginative and intellectual forces were, in fact, organic and derived from the natural world, Coleridge linked them to God, spirituality, and worship.
How does Coleridge define the nature and function of poetry?
The First seen in the Season Nitens et roboris expers - Turget et insolida est: et spe delectat. First, language is both a matter of words, and the arrangement of those words. Both the poems communicate moral truth which we cannot dismiss. In Christabel , however, the element of the marvel is not portrayed but slightly distilled into the atmosphere. This idea forms the core of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
