Coleridge, Wordsworth and Shelley - Comparisons

COLERIDGE WORDSWORTH SHELLEY

Nature is the main theme of his poetry and it Nature has a deeper meaning which goes

Nature is the way the One life ( that is a

Nature has different meanings: beyond the physical appearance.

divine power ) expresses itself, so all 1. Nature as countryside opposed to town There is a universal invisible spiritual force,

creatures must be respected, being the 2. Nature as a source of feelings - joy and the Spirit of the Universe, which

"personification" of God. happiness continually creates new life and govern

The natural elements and the landscape are 3. Nature as an active force, a sort of natural elements, that are endowed with a

endowed with a deeper symbolic meaning. goddess that is worshipped. soul.

Nature is pervaded by a cosmic power, All creatures aspire to return to the Whole,

a Mighty Power, that is identified with the One.

God ( pantheistic view ). The cosmic power can't be identified with God,

Who doesn't exist.

Men must respect nature and all its Wordsworth's poetry emphasises this Nature sympathises with men and men are

Nature and men manifestations. relationship. a part of the Spirit of the Universe.

Children are closer to God so they're pure Nature is a source of joy and a refuge from

and can perceive nature and respond to it. the disappointment and injustice of life.

While growing up, they lose this ability and

the "celestial light" they could see before

fades away.

Only the poet keeps this deep bound with

the natural world intact.

God exists. God exists. God doesn't exist: He can't be Love and

Religious beliefs Almightiness at the same time.

Shelley condemns all dogmas and religious

practices as religion is an instrument in the

hands of the priests for the enslavement of

creatures. 1

1. German philosophy. 1. Rousseau's theories about the status of 1. Radical party

Political and philosophical childhood 2. The anarchist Jacobin philosopher

influences and beliefs 2. Neo - Platonism William Godwin

3. Pantheistic view of the world 3. Neo - Platonism

4. First sympathetic with the French 4. Rationalism

revolution, then conservative. 5. Sympathetic with the French

Revolution and the revolutionary

Ideals.

No one. No one. Great attention towards society: Shelley is

Social involvement a rebel from his early youth.

He conceives the world as divided between

oppressors and oppressed.

Shelley refuses any kind of tyranny and

institution, as they lead to superstitions and

selfishness and limit freedom.

He claims for a revolution to come and

replace the world of tyranny with that of

freedom.

Men are perfectible ( they can improve

only by reason and love ) and one day, in a

near future, they will live without class

distinctions, institutions having been

abolished.

Poetry comes from a state of ecstasy, it Poetry is "emotion recollected in Poetry is the expression of imagination.

What poetry is must deals with supernatural events. tranquillity". It is the record of the best and happiest

This recollection puts the poet's mind in a moments of life, but it is not a rational

state of enjoyment, it recreates emotions faculty : the poet's will and reason can't

similar to those felt while enjoying nature. control the creative process.

In this mood composition begins. The poet's mind obeys to an invisible

Poetry deals with situations from simple influence which is the cause of

and rustic life - because men are better remembering. Remembering causes

when they live in contact with nature -, inspiration and it is only when this latter

transfigured by the use of imagination. one is already on the decline that

It is a source of general joy. composition begins.

Poetry is the source of positive feelings 2

and of moral inspiration.

To cause interest in the reader for To give the charm of novelty to things of To prevent the decaying of the vanishing

The task of poetry supernatural events, giving them a everyday, transfiguring them through moments of inspiration that touch the poet's

semblance of truth; to create that willing imagination, to awake the attention of the mind, veiling them in language or in form.

suspension of disbelief that Coleridge calls reader. Be the instrument of the social regeneration.

poetic faith. To make the poet immortal.

Imagination is divided in two types: The poet uses imagination to transform the

What imagination is 1. Primary ( the ability - common to all data of experience and present it in an

men - to perceive the material world ) unusual way.

2. Secondary ( the poetic vision, the

action to idealise and unify ).

Imagination starts from experience, but

soon transcends it creating - in the true

sense of the world - a new world, uncanny

and magic. A man speaking to other men who has: The poet is a man endowed with the most

Who the poet is 1. acute awareness of physical sensations delicate sensibility and the most enlarged

and marked capacity for rejoicing in imagination.

life He is different as he is able to express

2. a great readiness and power in impressions and feelings, while other men

expressing his feelings and thoughts are not.

3. an ability of evoking passions in Poets have the most spotless virtue and are

himself the most fortunate of men, they are the

4. a grater knowledge of human state. wisest, the happiest and the best of men.

The poet's task is to unveil the beauty of To spread the poetic inspiration among

The poet's task familiar sight and to teach men to enter into mankind.

communion with nature. A poet is a prophet of social change as he

is able to see beyond the immediate reality.

He has to awake man's consciousness to

change the social status, to bring a rebirth,

erasing inequalities. 3