Biographia Literaria Chapter: XIV

Name: Baraiya Saryu D.

Subject: Literary Theory and Criticism (Paper-3)

Topic: Biographia Literaria Chapter: XIV

Roll no: 30

Study: MA

Year: Semester – I

Guided By: Dr. D. Baradsir

Submitted To: Department of English

University: MKBU

Biographia Literaria: Chapter – XIV

Introduction:

          Biographia Literaria is a very famous and benchmark type of work of literature. It was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. S.T.Coleridge was poet of romantic era and his time duration was 1772-1834.

He contributes in number of amounts in English Literature. His some famous and noticeable works are:

o   The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

o   Frost at Midnight

o   Christabel

o   Kubla Khan

These all poems give him a position in history of literature. And now we are going to discuss about his most prominent and legendary work of literature named as ‘Biographia Literaria’. It was published during 1815 to 1817. It is a critical work of S.T.Coleridge. This whole work is separated in to 24 chapters and it is known as standard of S.T.Coleridge’s critical work. This critical work contains autobiographical elements of Coleridge but then even it is not direct, simple or linear autobiography. It is thoughtful type of work. Originally this work was written for preface for his preface to collected volume of his poems. This work was written by Coleridge for explaining his own narrative style of poetry and mitigating his own style and practice in poetry. But after some time this work grew as a literary autobiography. This work has so many facts and concerning his education and studies and his early literary adventure. He wrote about his personal views and extended criticism on Wordsworth’s theory of poetry as given in preface of ‘Lyrical Ballads’. And by this work of criticism he supported his own theory of poetry as he wrote in ‘Lyrical Ballads’.

          This work is very long and it is structured very loosely. So it is very difficult to discuss whole work so here we are trying to discuss about only chapter: XIV. It was personally published in 1817. In his practical approach to criticism we can get sign of Coleridge as a poet and while discussing theory we can see philosophical sight and vision of Coleridge. So as per it in this chapter: XIV of critical work ‘Biographia Literaria’ we can see Coleridge’s vies on nature and function of poetry in philosophical style and terms. At beginning of this chapter Coleridge try to differentiate poetry and prose as a poet. But after it he again tries to differentiate Poetry and poem in his philosophical style. He was the first English writer who firmly believes that every work of art is an organic whole by its nature.

Two Cardinal Points of Poetry by Coleridge:

          This point started with:

“During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbors, our conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination.”        

 Coleridge started his essay with the views on two points, which are just fundamental points to talking about 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.

         

          In first point about poetry, Coleridge tries to say that a poet write a poem related to nature in very simple form and style. Any people can read and enjoy poetry. So who poet is devoted and loyal to the nature and has power to moving reader’s heart and mind towards the nature is writing this type of poetry and it was decided and by him that William Wordsworth would write poetry dealing with the theme according to first basic point and that type of poem is very near and realistic to the nature and ability to leads out the people near the nature. He quoted that:

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

In this type of poems subjects are very common and taken from and chosen from day to day life and very ordinary life. The characters of this type of poems are very general and ordinary and we can easily find out this type of characters in each village.

In second point about poetry, Coleridge drags our attention towards supernatural elements and the events. And he also said that he use to write poems, related with this second cardinal point. He quoted that:

“the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency.”  

And he talks about supernatural elements, too. He said that poet convert poetry and atmosphere of poetry with the help of his self imagination and with mind’s eyes poet can turn all natural things into supernatural. Poet can create an imaginative world with his thoughts. After describing both these types of poetry Coleridge gave example to prove his point. ‘The Lyrical Ballads’-volume of poems written by Coleridge and Wordsworth in collaboration -deals with these two core points. Wordsworth quoted that:

“was to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, by awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us.”

Coleridge’s Views on Wordsworth’s Poetic Creed:

              Coleridge himself not agrees with Wordsworth’s views on poetic diction. And so his different point of view about poetic faith he gives in ‘Biographia Literaria’. Wordsworth adopted language of day to day life in poetry in ‘Lyrical Ballads’. And even in preface Wordsworth giving strong and powerful criticism on using of common language in poetry. Coleridge’s view is differs with him and so in his point of view’s defense he wrote:

“Had Mr. Wordsworth's poems been the silly, the childish things, which they were for a long time described as being had they been really distinguished from the compositions of other poets merely by meanness of language and inanity of thought; had they indeed contained nothing more than what is found in the parodies and pretended imitations of them; they must have sunk at once, a dead weight, into the slough of oblivion, and have dragged the preface along with them.”

  He thinks that if these poems go through criticism then they will be criticized negatively by Critics. Preface is also criticized because of its simple language and simple formation. But it is not happened and Wordsworth’s views were accepted by Critics. So he gives full credit to the genius of Wordsworth and quoted that:

“year after year increased the number of Mr. Wordsworth's admirers. They were found too not in the lower classes of the reading public, but chiefly among young men of strong sensibility and meditative minds; and their admiration (inflamed perhaps in some degree by opposition) was distinguished by its intensity, I might almost say, by its religious fervour.”

And with this point he also added that it does not mean that he fully agrees with the all points of Wordsworth on poetic faith. To prove this he writes:

“With many parts of this preface in the sense attributed to them and which the words undoubtedly seem to authorize, I never concurred; but on the contrary objected to them as erroneous in principle, and as contradictory (in appearance at least) both to other parts of the same preface, and to the author's own practice in the greater part of the poems themselves. Mr. Wordsworth in his recent collection has, I find, degraded this prefatory disquisition to the end of his second volume, to be read or not at the reader's choice.”

Here we can say that Coleridge is frank and straight forward to point out his own views even if he differs with Wordsworth and he was saying that Wordsworth is wrong in theory and contradictory, not only in parts of the Preface but also to the practice of the poet himself in many of his points. He opposed with Wordsworth’s analysis of poetry so he told him honestly that he is not agree or in favor of his point of views.   

Difference Between Prose and Poem:

             

              This is third part or we can say it a point of Coleridge’s ‘Biographia Literaria’. We can easily recognize that the poem includes the same elements as prose compositions. So it is bit difficult to differentiate poem and prose but the difference is between combination of those elements and objects aimed at in both the composition. So they both are different in their particular aim for which they are written by poet. For it Coleridge says:

“while it is the privilege of the philosopher to preserve himself constantly aware, that distinction is not division. In order to obtain adequate notions of any truth, we must intellectually separate its distinguishable parts; and this is the technical process of philosophy. But having so done, we must then restore them in our conceptions to the unity, in which they actually co-exist; and this is the result of philosophy. A poem contains the same elements as a prose composition; the difference therefore must consist in a different combination of them, in consequence of a different object being proposed. According to the difference of the object will be the difference of the combination.”

If we differentiate poem and poetry in very simple way then we can say that which object’s subject is very simple, and main rezone to write an object is just to remember all olden facts and memories with inner flow of feelings without taking extra care of rhyme or metre that composition is known as poem. A poet should make use of artificial words and arrangement words with the help of metre. It can be done without rhyme or metre sometimes.  

“A poem contains the same elements as a prose composition; the difference therefore must consist in a different combination of them, in consequence of a different object being proposed. According to the difference of the object will be the difference of the combination. It is possible, that the object may be merely to facilitate the recollection of any given facts or observations by artificial arrangement; and the composition will be a poem, merely because it is distinguished from prose by metre, or by rhyme, or by both conjointly.”

 

As an example here I gave two lines of poem, which contains name of months and days. It is without any rhyme or metre:

“Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November, &c.”

But in prose composition is done by metre or rhyme and it is compulsory and it is the main difference which is differentiating an object in prose or poem. Then Coleridge makes an addition that only rhyme and metre cannot create a poem or poetry. Then he talks about some other prose writings and its instant purpose and final end. A form of literary work named prose; poem and poetry are required and written for instant purpose and the final truth because it can be written for any subject like science, fiction, novel, romance and etc. And it has to convey some information to the reader or give pleasure or delight in at a moment and the final end may be to give truth. So the most important thing about work is to give immediate pleasure and delight to the reader not metrically composed.

              After this discussion Coleridge himself raises the question that:

“Would then the mere superaddition of metre, with or      without rhyme, entitle these to the name of poems?”

Then he himself gives answer of it with saying that if metre is wonderfully added the other parts of composition that also must suite and match with it. And if every part of composition like, metre, diction, topic, subject, theme, background, and rhyme must be harmonize with wholeness with the composition and then and then that composition can take form of poem or deserve the name of poem. In Coleridge’s words:

“The answer is, that nothing can permanently please, which does not contain in itself the reason why it is so, and not otherwise. If metre be superadded, all other parts must be made consonant with it. They must be such, as to justify the perpetual and distinct attention to each part, which an exact correspondent recurrence of accent and sound are calculated to excite. The final definition then, so deduced, may be thus worded. A poem is that species of composition, which is opposed to works of science, by proposing for its immediate object pleasure, not truth; and from all other species--(having this object in common with it)--it is discriminated by proposing to itself such delight from the whole, as is compatible with a distinct gratification from each component part.”

Definition of Poem:

              A piece of writing in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity                         by particular attention to diction (sometimes involving rhyme), rhythm, and               imagery. So in short we can say that poem is just for pleasure and delight.

              According to Coleridge poem is distinguished form and prose is composition by its sudden object. Poem is just to please and which poem fulfills these criteria, it is known as   A Legitimate poem in Coleridge’s language. The Legitimate Poem is a small composition in which metre and rhyme bear an organic relation to the total work. He himself defines it as:

“it must be one, the parts of which mutually support and explain each other; all in their proportion harmonizing with, and supporting the purpose and known influences of metrical arrangement.”

Difference between Poem and Poetry:

              This is the last point on which Coleridge gives hid arguments in this chapter: XVI. He tries to define poetry from poem. He point out in his essay that:

“poetry of the highest kind may exist without metre, and even without the contradistringuishing objects of a poem.”

Coleridge gives examples of writings of Plato, Jeremy Taylor and Bible. The quality of that prose in these writing is equal to that of high poetry. He also said that the poem of any length neither can be, nor ought to be, all poetry. So now the main question is what poetry is and how he differs from poem? The answer is given by Coleridge that 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. In this essay he says:

“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.”

But difference between poetry and poem is not given specifically. Because for Coleridge, poetry is activity of poet’s mind, and a poem is only expression and feelings of poet.

“My own conclusions on the nature of poetry, in the strictest use of the word, have been in part anticipated in some of the remarks on the Fancy and Imagination in the early part of this work.”

 As David Daiches says:

“‘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.”

If we can see it in larger sense then we can say that poetry brings whole soul of man into activity and because of it each faculty performing his role properly according to its relativity, worth and dignity.  In Coleridge’s words:

“The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity, with the subordination of its faculties to each other according to their relative worth and dignity. He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and (as it were) fuses, each into each, by that synthetic and magical power, to which I would exclusively appropriate the name of Imagination.”

In poetry powers of secondary imaginations are at work and it brings all aspects of a subject into a complex unity. In short poetry means a process in poet’s mind which can take shape of any form of literature like water but it contains harsh qualities, too and Coleridge quoted this thing as:

“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 objects; a more than 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.”  

Conclusion:

          Here we are concluding this critical essay ‘Biographia Literaria’ by S.T.Coleridge. He is the first English Critic who done literary criticism on philosophical ethics. While other critics, before him and many of after him, had been done criticism of many poems and other forms of literature but they just deals with some theories and discourse about poetry or any other form of literature on its merits and demerits. But Coleridge was different among them and busied himself towards the basics and basic questions about poetry, poem and prose. He tries to define, classify, and evaluate these three forms of literature and tries to give very specific understanding of these three forms of literature. These three forms are basic and main forms of literature and Coleridge tries to specify these there forms as per his own understanding. And with these lines Coleridge gives his own views and conclusion to this critical essay:

“Finally, Good Sense is the Body of poetic genius, Fancy its Drapery, Motion its Life, and Imagination the Soul that is everywhere, and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent whole.”

       

           

             

                                                                                                                              

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