Aesthetic Views of the poet Samuel Coleridge

in #poetry6 years ago (edited)

As a literary theorist and critic, Coleridge brings some methods of German literary criticism into the study of Shakespeare's work. The two distinguished American historians and theorists of literature, Helek and Warren, claim in the authoritative "Theory of Literature" that among the great European romantic poets, Coleridge was simultaneously a qualified philosopher with great ambition and enviable prominence. He was a specialist on Kant and Schelling and became the winner of their ideas, though he was not always critical to them. Thanks to Coleridge, whose own poetry seems to be too infrequent by these ideas, many German or, more generally speaking, neoplatonic ideas have appeared or reappeared in the English poetic tradition. As a connoisseur of poetry, this English romantic became famous for his work on the importance of metrics and rhythm in lyricism and the denial of a strictly regulated classical verse. As a highly fledged intellectual he has evoked the various, favorable and hostile comments of his contemporaries. Because of his spiritual elevation and his charming irresponsibility, his contemporary Charles Lem defines him as a "little fallen archangel," while others admire his sophisticated and extremely rich imagination and rational insight into the labyrinths of German philosophical thought.

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With his "Biographia Literaria" work, published in 1817, Coleridge contributed greatly to the development of literary criticism and theory during the Romantic era in England. In it, the poet Leikist maintains the thesis that "poetry adheres to the same strict logic that science holds true". Much of his reflection in this peculiar, literary theoretical and critical collection is devoted to Wordsworth's poetry, the mission of the poet, the poetical language, and to the analysis of the poems of his fellow leikist in the co-created collection "Lyrical Ballads" - the literary work that connects them and legitimizes them as adherents and initiators of the Lake School. Coleridge says that they both decided to join forces as poets in a collection of ballads, as they recognize two types of poetry: one in which the person feels submissive to some supernatural power that actually arranges his life; the other in which heroes and occurrences occur in every village and its surroundings, as long as there is a sensitive and contemplative mind to look for them and notice them when they occur. Here, for the first time, Coleridge claims that the poem is a kind of work that differs from scientific work on its immediate purpose, namely, the delight rather than the truth ... and generates the delight of the whole, which builds on the pleasure of each separate part . It highlights an important feature of poetry - the ability to exert even more and more continuous attention than the language of prose in oral or written form. The perfect poet is able to trigger the whole soul of man by subordinating his abilities to one another according to their relative value and dignity ... The sense of measure is the body of the poetic genius, the fantasy is his garment, the movement - his life, and the imagination is the soul that is everywhere and in every thing and forms everything in a fine and comprehensible whole.

Coleridge states that such a man can never be a true poet and clarifies. The sense of the musical delight and the ability to create it yourself is a gift of the imagination that together with the ability to reduce diversity to unity of effect and to modify a group of thoughts through some overwhelming thought or feeling can be cultivated and perfected but can not be learned. In this sense, the poet is born, not created. In "Biographia Literaria," Coleridge follows the development of "improperly clever" Shakespeare as a poet defending the thesis. No one has ever become a great poet without being a deep philosopher. Because poetry is the color and scent of all human knowledge, human thought, passions, emotions and language. According to him, Shakespeare is not a self-taught child of nature. First he has patiently taught, deeply meditated, penetrated the details, while knowledge became part of it, became intuition, merged with his ordinary feelings, and so finally created the amazing power that made it the only one in the world without having equal or even second after it. The English bridle does not support the romantic concept of the "born poet". Coleridge begins his short article "Definition of Poetry" with the following important clarification that the true antithesis of poetry is not prose but science. Poetry is the opposite of science, and prose is the poem. The true and immediate purpose of science is to discover and communicate the truths revealed; the true and immediate purpose of poetry is to create a direct aesthetic pleasure. According to the author, aesthetic pleasure can only be fully felt in the most active participation of mental powers that are rather spontaneous rather than conscious and in which effort for their activation, is not proportional to the enjoyment of their activity.

Poetry or rather the poem is a kind of artistic creation, contrary to science, which aims to deliver intellectual pleasure and which it accomplishes with the help of the language inherent in the man in a state of excitement. Poetry differs from the other types of artistic creation for which the above criterion is also valid, in that the poem allows to experience aesthetic pleasure from both its entire component and its individual components; its ultimate effect is to create the greatest possible immediate pleasure of each part, combined with the greatest enjoyment of the whole. In his article, Coleridge further developed the insight of his eminent predecessor, the poet John Milton, that poetry should be "simple, sensible and passionate." The first condition - simplicity, on the one hand, distinguishes poetry from the difficult, painful processes of science directed at the achievement of a still unrealized goal Simplicity in poetry suggests a sense of a smooth and paved path in which the reader, instead of working with pioneers and struggling to make way for others, goes with ease.In his voyage he is accompanied by a bubble trees, flowers, and homes, and that makes his journey as fascinating as his teaching and purpose, and, on the other hand, simplicity prevents predisposition and painful subjectivity, and the second condition - sensuousness, provides the basis for objectivity, concreteness and clarity of imagery , as well as the dynamics of images without which poetry turns into a monotonous didactic exercise or vaporizes in vague, meaningless delusions. Passion is the third condition that states that meaning and imagery must be not merely objective, but that they also need to be warmed and spirited by this real sensitivity of mankind.

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In his article, Coleridge further developed the insight of his eminent predecessor, the poet John Milton, that poetry should be "simple, sensible and passionate.

There's no more painful reading than trying to engage with cold, complicated and somehow incomplete poetry.

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Poetry is difficult, for me. One is gifted with intellect & artistry to do such great poem/poetry. Leaned again another insight about poetry and some famous persons. We have this subject we back then. Nice to recall through this post @godflesh.

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