Biographia Literaria Chapter 14

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Name : Ruchita Kankrecha A.

Roll no : 39

Paper no : literary theory and criticism

Class : Sem 1

Topic : Biographia Literaria chapter xIv(14)

Enrollment no : 2069108420190024

College : Department of English

Email Id : ruchikankrecha06@gmail.com

Submitted to : Department of English

INTRODUCTION

Biographia Literaria chapter – XIV is a very famous work of literature. It was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was poet of romantic era. He was an best English poet, philosopher and critic. He was a founder of the romantic era in England and close to his best friend William Wordsworth. His some notable works are  

        1. Rime of the Ancient Mariner

        2. Frost at midnight

        3. Kubla Khan

His most prominent and interesting work of literature was “Biographia Literaria” and it was published – 1815 to 1817. It is a critical work of S. T Coleridge and this work is divided in to 24 chapters. This is not simple work but hard to understand. He wrote this work for explaining his own narrative style of poetry. In chapter XIV of Biographic Literaria, Coleridge’s view on nature and function of poetry in discussed in philosophical terms and The poet within Coleridge discusses the difference between poetry and prose and the immediate function of poetry. whereas the philosopher discusses the difference between poetry and poem. He was the English writer to insist that every work of art is by its very nature or  an organic whole. At the first step he rules out the  assumption, which from Horace onwards, had wrought such have  in criticism , that the object of poetry is to instruct or as a less extreme from of the heresy had asserted, to make men morally better.

TWO CARDINAL POINTS OF POETRY :

Coleridge started this chapter with two important cardinal points of poetry.

1.  The power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature

2.  The power of giving the interest of novelty by modifying with the colours of imagination.

So, through this two cardinal points he wants to say that words worth would write poetry dealing with the theme of first point.

       “ The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which moon- light or sun set diffused over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the practicability of combining both. These are the poetry of nature”

In the second type of poetry the incidents or situations were to be supernatural. “The Lyrical Ballads” dealing with two cardinal points.

Different between poem and prose :

Simply people think that poem is something which written by the use of meter, rhyme and diction. And prose is written in a simple way like no meter and rhyme. Meter should be chosen based on the content. Before the invention of printing and before the introduction of writing meter especially alliterative meter, an independent value as assisting the recollection. The element of meter owe their existence to a state of increased excitement The poem contains the same elements as a prose composition. But we can find some different between poem and prose. In simple words we can say that,

“Poem means arrangements of the words”

IMAGINATION :

In chapter XIV of the book he talk about imagination which is known as a magical and synthetic power, and add, “this power, first put in action by the will and understanding and retained under their remissive, though binding gentle and unnoticed, control, reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities: of sameness, with difference; of the general. With the concrete; the idea, with the , image the individual, with the representative, the sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar object; a more then usual state of emotion, with more than usual order; judgment ever awake and steady self-possession, with enthusiasm and feeling profound or vehement; and while it blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial, still subordinates art to nature: the manner to the matter; and our admiration of the poet to our sympathy with the poetry.” There are two types of imagination. 

1. Primarily imagination and

 2. Secondly imagination.

1.   Primary Imagination:-

It is the power of perceiving the object of sense. Both in their parts and as a whole.It is an involuntary act of the mind. the human mind receives impressions and sensations from the out side world, unconsciously and involuntarily, it imposes some sort of order on those impressions, reduces them to shape and size, so that the mind is able to form a clear image of the out side world. It is in this way that clear and coherent perception becomes possible.

2.   Secondary Imagination:-

Secondary imagination which makes artistic creation possible and  It is more active and conscious in its working but it requires an effort of the will, volition and conscious afford. It works upon what is perceived by the primary imagination and its raw material is the sensations and impression supplied to it by the primary imagination. By the effort of the will and the intellect, the secondary imagination selects and orders the row material and reshapes and remodels it into objects of beauty. The external world and steeps then with a glory and dream that never was on sea and land. It is an active agent which,  

“Dissolves, diffuses, and dissipates, in order to create.”

Difference of object in prose and poem:

Prose and poem contains same elements but compositions are different. The main difference is ‘Object’ between poem and prose. There are two types of objects.

 1. Immediate object 
 2. Ultimate object

In the poem the immediate object is ‘Pleasure’ and in prose the immediate object is ‘Truth’. The best example is

        “ Thirty days hath September,

           April, June, and November. “

Any poem which reveals truth has the aim of permanent pleasure.

Difference between poetry and poem :

In the last section of the chapter, Coleridge considers to distinguish poem from Coleridge points out that,

     “Poetry of the highest kind may exist without metre and even without the contradistinction objects of a poem “

So in simple language we can say that poetry is the use of words to evoke a writer’s feelings and thoughts, and poem is the arrangement of the words. Poetry as poetry is essentially ideal that it avoid and excludes all accident that it’s apparent individuality if rank, character and occupation must be representative if class. The persons of poetry must be clothed with generic attributes. With the common attributes of class and not with such as one gifted individual might possibly possess but such as from his situation it is most probable beforehand that he would possess. “MICHAEL” is best example. Common language cannot be used for all types of poetry. Now do we expect people of higher rank gain pleasure from works of rustic life. Poetry should also have representations of superior people as well. Poetry should be a combination of both representations. A poem uses symbols and stanzas that have sentences. There are types of poem like sonnets, ode, epic, narrative, Lyrical etc...

    “Poetry is defined as a literary from if art “

Poetry is the process of creating a literary using metaphor and symbols. John Shaw Cross writes,

  “ This distinction between ‘Poetry’ and ‘poem’ is not clear and in stead of defining poetry. He proceeds to describe a poet and from the poet he proceeds to enumerate the characteristics of the imagination. “

So that we can say that without imagination poem or poetry is not possible. When you go along and observe or imagine or try to write poetry at that time you may create your own poetry. It is not easy to write poem or poetry. Imagination is important in poem or poetry.

Higher people may enjoy common poetry for three reasons,

1.  For feeling realistic

2.  Natural representation

3.  Sense of superiority.

So common people will only talk about their region. But that is not the entire reality. Common men are everywhere not just in village. Common language will have less vocabulary and rustic people have less experience. So certain things can only be communicated in superior language. Truth just like language cannot be generalised.

CONCLUSION :

So, Coleridge is the first English critic. He was interested in the creative writing. He gave many important points in poem, poetry and prose. And he also noticed that most of poets write in a very simple way. They are not using certain things.

 “When a poem or a part of poem shall be adduced which is evidently important in the figures or contexture of it’s style then and not than till than can I hold this theory to be either plausible or practicable.”