Comparison of Wordsworth and Coleridge and Coleridge's critique of Wordsworth
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Module
HSS
Institution
National Institute Of Technology Tiruchirappalli
An analysis of Coleridge and Wordsworth's different views on the perception of the world, poetic activity and types of imagination. Also includes Coleridge's criticism of Wordsworth in his "Biographia Literaria".
Wordsworth agrees that poetry is ideal as his notion is that suspending
of senses is necessary to create poetry. But he was crippled by his
adherence to showing verisimilitude of rustics. Coleridge criticises
Wordsworth for glorifying the rustic lifestyle that is not innate in
everyone. His obsession with the language of the Rustics was also a
folly as intonation, stress and rhythm are inherently the traits of
language itself. He is not interested in the ideal forms and the A priori
but wants you to perceive what is available to you.
For Coleridge poetry is a way to get something higher. Poetry is
founded on associationism, for instance, Wordsworth is not true poetry
as true poetry is ideal. The world of imagination is the ideal world and
poetry should come from there. Imagination comes when you mediate
between the noumenal and phenomenal world and this makes the poet a
diviner or a prophet. Wordsworth only focuses on the phenomenal and
is preoccupied with the ‘matters of fact’. For Coleridge, your
perception of the world should be based on the A Priori. Poet’s eye is
not the observer’s eye. For Coleridge, there is no perceivable reality as
reality is composed of the mind itself. Poetry is created when the
consciousness of the poet encounters the objective world. Thus it
becomes ultimately inward. For Coleridge, the poet is a prophet and
philosopher.
Note: According to Wordsworth and Coleridge the noumenal world is
within us. According to Plato, the noumenal world is beyond our access
and exists in a hypo uranian topos. The perception of the physical world
reminds us of the true forms that our soul encountered when it was in
the metaphysical realm. So for him, true knowledge is remembrance.
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