Coleridge's Concept of Poetry

 

Two important and remarkable tendencies of English poetry have been Classicism and Romanticism. Both the tendencies stand different rather opposite to each other. Wordsworth and Coleridge belong to Romantic age which is marked with the dominance of passions, emotions and feelings. Both the writers, as poets, share the salient features of their age but they, as critics, go contrary to each other in their views on the concept of poetry.

Prior to discuss Coleridge’s concept of poetry, let’s take a look at how Wordsworth defines poetry;

 

“The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility.” (Preface, 126)

 

Coleridge gives a very sane and convincing opinion that poetry must be a combination of passions and thoughts. Neither it should be an embodiment of mere sensuous feelings nor should it be an emblem of only profound and philosophical thoughts. He defines poetry as;

 

“The excitement of emotions for the purpose of immediate pleasure, through the medium of beauty.” (Coleridge, 365)

 

He goes to explain that poetry should be a union of deep feelings with profound thoughts. Coleridge’s immense popularity and immortal fame as a critic and poet lies in the fact that he made lasting observations on the topics previously discussed by Wordsworth, Addison and many others. The previous discussions proved to be childish and inferior when compared with Coleridge’s convincing argumentation on the same subject. Therefore, he must be regarded as a great poet critic.

Coleridge and Wordsworth did a lot of work in collaboration but with the passage of time, they drifted apart. Wordsworth presented his theory of poetic diction and Coleridge criticized almost all of the elements of his theory. One thing is admitted that Coleridge was a greater poet critic than Wordsworth. In fact, Wordsworth was not a critic in the strict sense of term rather he presented his theory just to defend his own mode of composing poetry. According to Wordsworth;

 

“The language of rustic and humble folk, purified of oddities and spoken in a state of vivid sensation and more so, there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and that of metrical composition.”

 

He further explains that metre is only a super added charm. On the other hand, Coleridge propounded a new and original theory and said that the language of rustic and humble folk cannot be the language of poetry. Language of poetry should be highly philosophical which we cannot expect from that of unlearned rustics.

Samuel Tailor Coleridge did a great service to literary criticism. He emphasized on the importance of metre in poetry whereas for Wordsworth, metre is just a super added charm. But Coleridge concluded that:

 

“I write in metre because I intend to write a language different from that of prose.”

 

According to Coleridge, function of poetry is twofold i.e., it should not only give delight but also must provoke thought. The poetry which is a source of delight only loses charm after some time. The immediate purpose of poetry should communicate truth which ultimately brings enjoyment and pleasure.

Furthermore, Coleridge stresses on the need of universal truths in poetry. He opines that a piece of poetry containing ideas specific to a particular time or nation is subject to lose its value and attraction soon. Whereas such pieces of poetry which carry the essence of reality true for all ages work wonder like fresh flowers which give enchanting and hypnotic smell that may be smelt any time in any age.

In a nutshell, we may conclude that Coleridge’s concept of poetry is preferable to that of his rival, Wordsworth. He stresses on the need of good poetic diction and metre in poetry.