BIOGRAAPHI

A LITERIA
CHAPTER 17
RIJA QAMAR
ROLL NO 04
MAM NOOR
19-01-2023
BIOGRAPHY: SAMUEL COLERIDGE

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, best known in his time as a literary critic and
philosopher. He was immensely influential in English literature as one of the founders of the
English Romantic Movement and when one talks about ‘the Romantic poets,’ it’s Coleridge’s
name that springs to mind.
• Two of Coleridge’s poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan are possibly
the two most famous poems in the English language.
• Coleridge was not only a poet – he was an academic and intellectual and wrote on several
philosophical subjects. His most famous prose work is Biographia Literaria, a literary
autobiography which is still used in universities as a textbook of literary criticism and
analysis.
• Coleridge suffered for most of his adult life from depression. He sank into opium addiction
and died in Highgate aged fifty-two.
CHAPTER 17: MAIN IDEAS

• Poetic studies often link Samuel Taylor Coleridge with poet William
Wordsworth. In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge uses chapter 17 to highlight
the differences between his poetry—the way poetry ought to be, in his
vision—and that of Wordsworth.
• Wordsworth is highly touted as a Romantic poet, yet Coleridge favors his
own individual style as the proper way to present poetry to the public.
Whereas Wordsworth’s work is simple and appeals to the common man,
Coleridge prefers to complicate his poetry. Both poets rely on their
imagination, but Coleridge relies more heavily upon it than does
Wordsworth.
MAIN IDEAS:

• Chapter 17 begins with Coleridge’s criticism of Wordsworth poetry as being

beneath appropriate standards, especially with respect to his diction. He frowns
upon Wordsworth’s “rustic” approach. Coleridge believes in a hierarchy of language
associated with poetry:

• “Examination of the tenets peculiar to Mr. Wordsworth—Rustic life (above all, low
and rustic life) especially unfavorable to the formation of a human diction—The
best parts of language the product of philosophers, not of clowns or shepherds—
Poetry essentially ideal and generic—The language of Milton as much the language
of real life, yea, incomparably more so than that of the cottager.”
MAIN IDEA:

• However, Coleridge opts to include praise for Wordsworth’s attempts to adhere to

poetic principles by stating, “he undertook a useful task, and deserves all praise....”
Nevertheless, he does not believe that rustic language is sufficient. To Coleridge,
language taken from what Wordsworth believes is “real life” is not real at all. It only
reflects the understanding of certain people living the “rustic life.” In a rejection of
Wordsworth’s language, he believes poetry must be infused with a greater degree
of imagination to fit real life as interpreted by a more sophisticated audience.
Speaking of Wordsworth, Coleridge writes,
• “The poet informs his reader, that he had generally chosen low and rustic life; but
not as low and rustic, or in order to repeat that pleasure of doubtful moral effect,
which persons of elevated rank and of superior refinement oftentimes derive from a
happy imitation of the rude unpolished manners and discourse of their inferiors.”
MAIN IDEA

• Coleridge finds Wordsworth’s work to be artificial and in need of a higher

level of imagination. In his view, rustic life is a hard life that skews the vision
of those who experience it. He argues that it takes education and a greater
degree of sophistication to accurately present reality to readers of poetry:

• “It is not every man that is likely to be improved by a country life or by

country labors. Education, or original sensibility, or both, must pre-exist, if the
changes, forms, and incidents of nature are to prove a sufficient stimulant.
And where these are not sufficient, the mind contracts and hardens by want
of stimulants: and the man becomes selfish, sensual, gross, and hard-
hearted.”
CONCLUSION

• While Biographia Literaria concerns itself with a variety of topics worth

exploring, chapter 17 focuses primarily on the weaknesses of Wordsworth’s
poetry, especially with respect to the language chosen. While Wordsworth
campaigned against exaggerated poetic diction, Coleridge objects to the use
of the informality of colloquialism as the standard for poetry. He believes
proper poetic language should reflect the higher thoughts of the more
educated or upper social classes of society.
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