Concetti Chiave
- Coleridge was a romantic poet influenced by the French Revolution, initially liberal but later conservative, with a failed plan for a utopian society named 'Pantisocracy'.
- His friendship with Wordsworth led to the publication of 'Lyrical Ballads', featuring 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', and marked his role in highlighting the supernatural.
- Coleridge's perspective on nature differed from Wordsworth, lacking pantheism due to his Catholic beliefs, viewing nature as a projection of ideas beyond the divine.
- In 'Biographia Literaria', Coleridge defined imagination with three levels: primary (basic perception), fancy (child-like associations), and secondary (artistic creation).
- His literary career included journalism and critical essays on Shakespeare, establishing his critical stance and creative philosophy.
What were Coleridge's early life and influences?
Coleridge is a romantic poet of first generation. He was born in Devonshire and when he was ten,he was sent to Christ's Hospital School in London.Later he went to Cambridge but he never graduated. He was a liberal because he was influenced by the French Revolution but after the disillusion he became a conservative. So he planned to found an Utopian society in Pennsylvania called 'Pantisocracy',based on the abolition of private ownership and where every economic activity would be done communally in order to create the best environment for everyone,but this project was never realized.
Friendship with Wordsworth and literary contributions
The friendship with Wordsworth was very important because they published the collection 'LYRICAL BALLADS',which contains his masterpiece called 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. In the following years he went to the Lake District to start his career of journalism and to criticize Shakespeare. Then he wrote another critical famous essay called 'Biographia Literaria' where he states his position in the collaboration with Wordsworth. He said that Wordsworth's object in the Lyrical Ballads was to speak about ordinary life,humble and rustic people but his task was to underline the supernatural.
Coleridge's unique view of nature
His concept of nature was very different from Wordsworth. He didn't have a pantheist vision because he was a catholicc and he couldn't identify nature with the divine power. He just talked about the supernatural,something that goes beyond God. He saw nature as the projection of the real world of ideas on the flux of time.
In his Biographia Literaria he explains his concept of imagination,in fact he distinguished between primary imagination,fancy and secondary imagination.The 'primary imagination' is the power that everybody has to perceive the world and the images around us and this is the first level of imagination. The second level is the fancy,the faculty that only children have to associate images and things. The secondary imagination is a third level of perception and it is the power,typical of artists,to recreate the images perceived under a work of art.
Domande da interrogazione
- What were the key influences on Coleridge's early life and political views?
- How did Coleridge's collaboration with Wordsworth impact his literary work?
- How did Coleridge's view of nature differ from Wordsworth's, and what was his concept of imagination?
Coleridge was influenced by the French Revolution, which initially led him to adopt liberal views. However, after becoming disillusioned, he shifted towards conservatism. His early education at Christ's Hospital School and later at Cambridge, although he did not graduate, also shaped his intellectual development.
Coleridge's friendship with Wordsworth was pivotal, leading to their joint publication of 'Lyrical Ballads', which included Coleridge's masterpiece 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. This collaboration highlighted their differing focuses, with Wordsworth exploring ordinary life and Coleridge emphasizing the supernatural.
Unlike Wordsworth's pantheist view, Coleridge, a Catholic, did not equate nature with divine power. He saw nature as a projection of ideas beyond the divine. In 'Biographia Literaria', he distinguished between primary imagination (basic perception), fancy (childlike association), and secondary imagination (artistic creation).
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