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Difference
between Poem and Poetry: Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Ø Prepared by : KAVITABA P. GOHIL
Ø Roll No : 23
Ø Paper – 3 : Literary Theory & Criticism: Western
– 1
Ø M.A
(English) : Sem
-1
Ø Enrollment
No : 2069108420180018
Ø Batch :
2017-19
Ø Email :
kavitabaprahaladsinhjigohil@gmail.com
Ø Submitted to : Smt .S. B Gardi, Department of English,
MK Bhavnagar University.
Ø Topic
: Difference between Poem and
Poetry: Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
PREFACE:
Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s critical work is contained in 24 chapters of Biographia
Literaria (1815–17). In this critical disquisition, Coleridge concerns himself
not only with the practice of criticism, but also, with its theory. In his
practical approach to criticism, we get the glimpse of Coleridge the poet;
whereas in theoretical discussion, Coleridge the philosopher came to the center
stage. In Chapter XIV of Biographia Literaria, Coleridge’s view on nature and
function of poetry is discussed in philosophical terms. 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 first English writer to insist that every
work of art is, by its very nature, an organic whole.
COLERIDGE:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic,
philosopher and theologian of the age. He was born at 21 October 1772; Ottery St.
Mary, Devon, England. He was very close friend of William Wordsworth. Coleridge
was founder of the Romantic Movement in England and also he was member of lake
poets. He was well known for his greatest poems like 'the rime of the ancient
mariner', "Kubla khan” and 'charitable' as well as the major prose work
"biographia literaria". Coleridge was very weak by his health; thus
throughout his entire life he faces many difficulties to survive, during his
adult life he become victim of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated
that he had bipolar disorder, which had not been defined during his lifetime.
His childhood passed through illness of body and thus he
always becomes victim of humiliation; he was treated for these conditions with
laudanum, thus it brings up lifelong addiction of opium. Critics noted that
after addicted opium he stars his literary work it gives him energy and led him
towards a new world of novelty; which reflected into his literary works. Over
addiction of opium create problems also; thus his mostly works are uncompleted.
HIS LITERARY WORKS:
A current standard edition
is The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, edited
by Kathleen Coburn and many other editors
(1969–2002), which appeared (from Princeton University Press and Routledge and
Kegan Paul) in Bollingen Series 75, in 16 volumes, broken down as follows
into further volumes and parts, to a total of 34 separate printed volumes: (contributors)
1. [Lectures 1795 on Politics and
Religion (1971);
2. The Watchman (1970);
3. Essays on his Times in the
Morning Post and the Courier (1978) in 3 vols;
4. The Friend (1969) in 2 vols;
5. Lectures, 1808–1819, on
Literature (1987) in 2 vols;
6. Lay Sermons (1972);
7. Biographia Literaria (1983)
in 2 vols;
8. Lectures 1818–1819 on the History
of Philosophy (2000) in 2 vols;
9. Aids to Reflection (1993);
10. On the Constitution of the Church
and State (1976);
11. Shorter Works and
Fragments (1995) in 2 vols;
12. Marginalia (1980 and
following) in 6 vols;
13. Logic (1981);
14. Table Talk (1990) in 2 vols;
15. Opus Maximum (2002);
16. Poetical Works (2001) in 6
vols (part1 Reading Edition in 2 vols; part 2 Variorum Text in 2 vols; part 3
Plays in 2 vols).] (contributors)
BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA
"Biographia literaria; or
Biographical Sketches of my literary life and opinions" is original or
full name of Coleridge’s autobiography. In 1817 it was published; in two
volumes.
The work was originally intended as a mere
preface to a collected volume of his poems, explaining and justifying his own
style and practice in poetry. The work grew to a literary autobiography,
including, together with many facts concerning his education and studies and
his early literary adventures, an extended criticism of William
Wordsworth's
theory of poetry as given in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads (a work on
which Coleridge collaborated), and a statement of Coleridge's philosophical
views. (contributors,
" Biographia Literaria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.)
In the first part of the work Coleridge is
mainly concerned with showing the evolution of his philosophic creed. At first
an adherent of the associational psychology of David Hartley, he came to discard this mechanical system
for the belief that the mind is not a passive but an active agency in the
apprehension of reality. The author believed in the "self-sufficing power
of absolute Genius" and distinguished between genius and talent as between
"an egg and an egg-shell". The discussion involves his definition of
the imagination or “esemplastic power,” the faculty by which the soul perceives
the spiritual unity of the universe, as distinguished from the fancy or merely
associative function. (contributors, " Biographia
Literaria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.)
The later chapters of the book deal with the
nature of poetry and with the question of diction raised by Wordsworth. While
maintaining a general agreement with Wordsworth's point of view, Coleridge
elaborately refutes his principle that the language of poetry should be one
taken with due exceptions from the mouths of men in real life, and that there
can be no essential difference between the language of prose and of metrical
composition. A critique on the qualities of Wordsworth's poetry concludes the
volume. (contributors, " Biographia
Literaria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.)
The book contains Coleridge's celebrated and
vexed distinction between “imagination” and “fancy”. Chapter XIV is the origin
of the famous critical concept of a “willing suspension
of disbelief”. (contributors,
" Biographia Literaria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.)
DIFFRENCE BETWEEN POEM AND POETRY:
'The poem of any length neither can be, nor ought to
be, all poetry.'
In the last section of the chapter 14, Coleridge considers
to distinguish poem from poetry. Coleridge points out that “poetry of the
highest kind may exist without metre and even without the contradistinguishing
objects of a poem”. He gives example of the writings of Plato, Jeremy
Taylor and Bible. The quality of the prose in this writings is equal to that of
high poetry. He also asserts that the poem of any length neither can be,
nor ought to be, all poetry. Then the question is what is poetry? How is it
different from poem? To quote Coleridge: “What is poetry? is so nearly the same
question with, what is a poem? The answer to the one is involved in the
solution of the other. For it is a distinction resulting from the poetic
genius itself, which sustains and modifies the images, thoughts, and emotions
of the poet's own mind. (DILIP)
One is a specific instance of the other. Means Poem
is a specific instance of poetry. Poetry is a kind of tree and poem is one
branch of this tree. It's all depended on imagination.
Thus the difference between poem and poetry is not given in
clear terms. Even John Shawcross (in Biographia Literaria with Aesthetical
Essays – 1907 Ed.) writes “this distinction between ‘poetry’ and ‘poem’ is
not clear, and instead of defining poetry he proceeds to describe a poet, and
from the poet he proceeds to enumerate the characteristics of the imagination”.
This is so because ‘poetry’ for Coleridge is an activity of the poet’s mind,
and a poem is merely one of the forms of its expression, a verbal expression of
that activity, and poetic activity is basically an activity of the imagination. (DILIP)
*IMAGINATION: 'CREATING AND RECREATING KNOWN AND
SEEN IMAGES.'
There are two types of imagination.
1] Primary imagination
⇝ Uniting the objects of
sense.
2] Secondary imagination
⇝ Unifying the objects of sense
with emotions and feelings.
@ POETRY IS :
-Distinction resulting from the poetic genius
itself, which sustains and modifies the images, thoughts, and emotions of the
poet's own mind,
-The best words in their best order ,
-Activity of poets mind
- eg. 1] Steve jobs -I PHONE
2] RIGHT BROTHER’S
AIRPLANE
3]
HUMAN BODY
Both things are apt for example of poetry. Poetry
is imagination of poet in which he added something and harmonies
it.
BEST EXAMPLE OF POETRY-(KUBLA KHAN)
“ In Xandu did Cublai Can
build a stately Pallace, encompassing sixteen miles of plaine ground with a
wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightfull streames, and
all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumptuous
house of pleasure, which may be moved from place to place.” (contributors, "Kubla Khan."
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.)
@ Poem:
-is merely one of the forms of poet's expression
Poem is only imagination of post.
Ordinary poets can only wrote poems by their
primary imaginations, whereas extra ordinary poets can write poetry and there
for they need secondary imagination. And it is necessary in them.
As David Daiches(A Critical History of English
Literature) points out, ‘Poetry’ for Coleridge is a wider category than a
‘poem’; that is, poetry is a kind of activity which can be engaged in by
painters or philosophers or scientists and is not confined to those who employ
metrical language, or even to those who employ language of any kind. Poetry, in
this larger sense, brings, ‘the whole soul of man; into activity, with each
faculty playing its proper part according to its ‘relative worth and dignity’.
This takes place whenever the synthesizing, the integrating, powers of the
secondary imagination are at work, bringing all aspects of a subject into a
complex unity, then poetry in this larger sense results. (DILIP)
David Daiches further writes in A Critical History of
English Literature, “The employment of the secondary imagination is a
poetic activity, and we can see why Coleridge is let from a discussion of a
poem to a discussion of the poet’s activity when we realize that for him the
poet belongs to the larger company of those who are distinguished by the
activity of their imagination.” By virtue of his imagination, which is a
synthetic and magical power, he harmonizes and blends together various elements
and thus diffuses a tone and spirit of unity over the whole. It manifests
itself most clearly in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant
qualities – such as (a) of sameness, with difference, (b) of the general, with
the concrete, (c) the idea, with the image, (d) the individual, with the
representative, (e) the sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar
objects, (f) a more than usual state of emotion, with more than usual order,
(g) judgment with enthusiasm. And while this imagination blends and harmonizes
the natural and the artificial, it subordinates to nature, the manner to the
matter, and our admiration of the poet to our sympathy with the poetry. (DILIP)
CONCLUTION:
In his own words, he endeavored
‘to establish the principles of writing rather than to furnish rules about how
to pass judgment on what had been written by others’. (DILIP)
Coleridge was interested in
creative writing thus he busied himself with questions of “How it came to be
there at all”. Coleridge was the first English critic who builds his literary
criticism on philosophical base.
Works Cited
contributors, Wikipedia. "
Biographia Literaria." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 29 5 2017. 1
11 2017 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biographia_Literaria#References>.
—. "Kubla Khan." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 27 10
2017. 1 11 2017 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubla_Khan>.
—. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. 31 10 2017. 1 11 2017
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge#Poetry>.
DILIP, BARAD. 5 10 2015. 1 11 2017
<https://www.slideshare.net/dilipbarad/samuel-coleridge-biographia-literaria-ch-14>.
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