Amity Institute of English

Studies and Research,

Amity University, Kolkata.

Name of the Student: Priya

Bhattacharjee
Enrollment Number:A91610321065
Course: M.A English
Semester:3 [Three]
Batch: 2021-23.
Paper Name:Literary Criticism
Paper Code: ENGL701
Faculty Name: Prof.Subro Saha.
 "In this idea originated the plan of the 'LyricalBallads' in which it was
agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters
supernatural, or atleast romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward
nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for
these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the
moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

Coleridge and Wordsworth collaboratively published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, marking the
rise of the British Romantic movement. Coleridge claimed that as part of their collaborative
plans, Wordsworth planned to use the self and the ordinary as his subject in poems that would
replace a feeling of familiarity with an air of the supernatural, and Coleridge would write a series
of lyrical poems exploring the Romantic and supernatural in an effort to win readers' "poetic
faith." The writers anticipated that combining these two strategies would harmonise "the two
cardinal features of poetry, the power to excite the reader's sympathy by a faithful devotion to the
reality of nature, and the power to give the interest of novelty by the altering hues of
imagination."
The expression "Willing suspension of disbelief," coined by Coleridge to describe the nature
of poetic dramatic illusion, has become one of the most widely used and well-known in the
English language and has profoundly influenced later literary thought. The phrase is used by
Coleridge in reference to his narrative of the creation and birth of the Lyrical Ballads in Chapter
XIV of the Biographia Literaria. He writes:

“In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical ballads; in which it was agreed that my
endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural or at least romantic; yet
so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to
procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment
which constitutes poetic faith”.

He was to write about characters who were supernatural, which are implausible and unlikely
and which, in normal circumstances, we would not believe in. However, the treatment was to be
such that, while reading his poems, there would be "a willing suspension of disbelief" and we
would temporarily believe in what is inherently implausible and unlikely. In other words, the
handling should be such that it would make readers' judgments unimportant so that they would
enjoyably continue reading the poetry. Mr. Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to
himself as his goal, to give the charm of novelty to things of everyday life, and to arouse a
feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of
custom, and directing it to the beauty and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible
treasure, but for which in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have
eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand.