Lecture 1

Coleridge’s comprehensive talk on chapter 14 Of Biographia Literaria

I Idea on Biographia Literaria

II Coleridge’s and Wordsworth’s poems in Lyrical Ballads

I The original version of Biographia Literaria then titled as 'Autobiographia Literaria' consisting of
13 chapters was completed in 1815. Coleridge wrote a Preface to it. This preface was later
incorporated into the text and it formed chapters 14 - 22 of Biographia Literaria. The book
rechristened or re-titled Biographia Literaria was published in 1817 in two volumes. In chapters 1 to
13 Coleridge reviews his life, attitude and outlook in the light of philosophy and metaphysics .This
part of the book is highly autobiographical. The later chapters are devoted to a reappraisal of his
literary and theoretical concerns. He has also undertaken an extensive and analytical reassessment
of Wordsworth's theory and practice. Chapter 14 of Biographia Literaria deals with the Genesis of
the Lyrical Ballads published in 1798 and the Preface which is the second edition of the Lyrical
Ballads published in 1800. Coleridge also discusses the ensuing controversy and also proceeds to
distinguish between poem and poetry and tries to redefine them. In 1796, Coleridge and
Wordsworth were living at the same place, Nether Stowey. They got very close to each other their
intimacy ultimately resulted in the flowering of one of the most creative associations in the history
of English poetry. The two poets discussed two basic aspects of the poetic creation. One was related
to the poet's accurate and faithful observations of external world. The other was based on how the
poetic process modifies the external world with the help of imagination and transforms it into
something rich and strange. The external world looks more beautiful and fresh. Here we are
reminded of the beginning of Wordsworth's Immortality Ode - famous starting lines of the
immortality ode:

"there was a time

when meadows stream....." II Coleridge and Wordsworth were really inspired by the fascinating
sight of the moonlight and sunset imparting strange charm and mystery to the objects of nature.
Their discussions led to the planning of the Lyrical Ballads. It was decided that Coleridge would
compose poems in which the incidents and agents were to be in part supernatural and they would
be rendered credible and interesting by the extension of the principle of willing suspension of
disbelief. Wordsworth on the other hand was to compose poems dealing with events and characters
drawn from the rustic life. He was expected to transform the familiar objects into something fresh
and strange by the colouring of imagination. The Lyrical Ballads was published with a brief
advertisement pointing out that the poems were the product of an experiment to see how poems
representing ordinary incidents and characters in a simple, unadorned and colloquial language can
impart pleasure to the readers. As we can see the large majority of the poems in the collection
belong to Wordsworth. 20 poems were written by him and Coleridge wrote 3 poems – The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner, The Foster-Mother's Tale and Nightingale. A fourth poem, The Dungeon was
added in the second edition. Coleridge confesses that he could not keep pace with the prolific senior
partner. Two years later in the second edition of the Lyrical Ballad was brought out in two volumes
and to it was prefixed a lengthy preface in which it was asserted that the language actually spoken
by the rustics has been used for all kinds of poetry and that such a language is the fittest and most
effective medium for poetry. This sweeping assertion stirred up a heated and prolonged controversy.
Coleridge deprecates the indiscriminate condemnation of the poems by the reviewers, as a majority
of them he believed were really good. They have survived the hostile criticism and continue to
delight readers of all kinds. Their inherent merit and excitement produced by the scathing attack on
them kept them in the public memory.

Lecture 2

Critical summary of chapter 14 of Biographia Literaria

I Difference between poem and prose writings.

II Definition of poetry by Coleridge (difference between prose and poetry)

III Best forms of poetry and ideas on long poems

Coleridge says that he himself did not agree with many parts of The Preface and pointed out its
internal contradictions. He also observed that Wordsworth’s theory did not square with his practice.
However it is to be noted that The Preface was written jointly by Coleridge and Wordsworth though
later Coleridge conveniently chose to distance himself from it. But the reviewers frequently
mentioned his name along with that of Wordsworth .So Coleridge wants to put record straight and is
eager to show where he agrees with Wordsworth and where he does not. But before that he would
consider it essential to offer his views on what a poem means and what poetry in general means. A
poem according to Coleridge is a product of imagination it has a form too that distinguishes it from
other kinds of compositions. Coleridge examines the form of a poem and sees how it is related to
the content.

I A poem uses the same medium as a prose composition namely words; the difference lie in their
different use of words based on their different objects. The object of the poet may be to remember
certain facts and experience and the resultant poem may differ from prose composition only in the
use of metre and rhyme. For example 30 days are September April June and November. There is
also pleasure consisting in the anticipation of recurring sounds. So such compositions can be called
poems. But the addition of metre and rhyme though is aid to memory is not necessitated by
anything in content or matter of the poem. There is no natural relation between the two. As content
is determined by the object, it all boils down to two different ways of writing the scientific and the
poetical. The immediate object of the scientific writing is truth and the immediate object of a poem
is pleasure. But ultimately the former can afford pleasure and the later truth. But the immediate
object of a poem and poetry in general is pleasure and under certain conditions metre enhances the
pleasure so it is congenial to poetry. But it should be determined by the language and content of the
poem. Metre is not just an ornament or an aid to memory. It goes with the language of excitement
which is based on an exciting experience when metre is in harmony with the language and content
of the poem, the reader is perpetually excited by each part of the poem. He is carried forward by the
pleasurable excitement of reading. It is lined in the uninterrupted pleasure obtained in a journey.
The sides and experiences on the way are as pleasurable as the destination itself. The parts of the
poem are as appealing as the whole. Coleridge now deals with prose works like fiction, the
immediate end of which is pleasure. He poses the important question whether mere super edition of
metre can turn prose works into poems. He reminds that metre should harmonize with content and
the language. The metrical form would not be appropriate to the language of a work of fiction. Also
its parts would not provide the pleasure offered by the work as a whole.

II A poem therefore may be defined as a class of composition opposed to works of science by

proposing for its immediate object pleasure not truth. It is distinguished from prose compositions
whose immediate purpose is to give pleasure, for example novel, in the most important aspect that
the pleasure to be offered by the whole work is in consonance with the pleasure to be offered by
each part .It means that the poem is an organic whole in which the various parts work in harmony to
provide pleasure which is peculiar to poetry. Metrical compositions where striking lines can be
detached and enjoyed separately cannot be called poems. Similarly metrical compositions where the
parts are so undistinguished that the reader can rapidly glance through the whole and understand
the general purpose without paying attention to the parts are also considered unpoetic.

III Long poems are only found to be partially gratifying. Coleridge goes to the extent of asserting
that a poem of any length neither can be nor ought to be poetry at all. The simple reason is that the
degree of excitement which would entitle a poem to be so called cannot be sustained through a
composition of any length. Regarding the consideration of poetry as distinguished from a poem
Coleridge points out that poetry may be found at its best in works which employ no metrical
language. In the broader sense poetry is an activity of the imagination idealising the real and
realising the ideal. Its function is to delight. But instead of discussing at length the nature and scope
of poetry, Coleridge dwells upon the nature and functions of the poet. Its creator, the poet at its
best calls forth all the powers of the mind into activity by virtue of his imagination which is a
synthetic and magical power. He harmonises and blends together various elements and thus diffuses
a tone and spirit of unity over the whole. It is the conscious use of the faculty of the mind consisting
of all the other faculties- perception, intellect, will and emotions. The observed reality is dissolved,
diffused, dissipated and recreated. It is the shaping and modifying power of the mind. In this process
the mind and nature act and react on each other the mind colouring nature becomes one with
nature. So imagination is the unifying or esemplastic power of the mind. The creative process
involves the reconciliation of opposite qualities. It can be sameness with difference as in old familiar
objects looking fresh and strange or the concrete with the general or the individual with the
representative as in the case of the fictional creation of Robinson Crusoe. It can even be the
reconciliation of the image with the idea as in the case of the leech gatherer, who represents the
idea of Resolution and Independence, poem by Wordsworth. Coleridge concludes the chapter rather
abruptly. He says that good sense is the body of the poetic genius. Fancy its eternal dress and
imagination, the soul which animates each part and forms one graceful and intelligent whole.