Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the premier poet-critic of modern English tradition, distinguished for the scope and influence of his thinking about literature as much as for his innovative verse.
He was born on October 21, 1772, in the Devon village of Ottery S.t. Marry and died in 1834, in London.
Since he was the 10th and the youngest child, he had a childhood of isolation and self-absorption.
A companion of Wordsworth, with whom he published ‘Lyrical Ballads’ in 1798.
Most of Coleridge’s work was based on philosophies and the revolutions in the era. He was greatly torn between his loyalty toward his nation Britain and his growing sympathy for the French (the war that was raged on the French by the British, giving rise to the French revolution)
He is considered the father of impressionistic criticism, he introduced philosophy and psychology in literary criticism.
he revolutionized the concept of imagination and stressed the organic wholeness of the poem. Unlike all the critics before him, Coleridge was more interested in the creative process that brought out the final result in a poem.
He endeavored to establish the principles of writing rather than furnish rules as to how to pass judgment on what is written by others.

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He thus made philosophy the basis of literary inquiry, and thus brought about a union of philosophy, psychology, and literary criticism. His academic theories have their bases in philosophy;
He philosophized literary criticism and thus brought about a better and truer understanding of the process of creation and the nature and function of poetry.
During the 17th century, the terms ‘fancy‘ and ‘imagination‘ have been closely used and synonymous with each other, they both referred to the world of fairy tales or make-believe.
In the late 18th century the relativity of the two words was so well established that no matter how many writers or poets like Wordsworth and Coleridge tried to revise its meaning it was inevitable.
In chapter 13 of Biographia Literaria, he gives the definition of imagination and he went and further divided it into two types of imagination.

Through his theory of imagination, he revolutionized the concept of artistic imitation.
He examined the structure and function of imagination.
Poetic imitation is neither a servile copy of nature nor the creation of something entirely new and different from Nature. Poetry is not imitation, but creation, but it is a creation based on the sensations and impressions received from the external world.
Such impressions are shaped, ordered, modified, and opposites are reconciled and harmonized, by the imagination of the poet, and in this way poetic creation takes place.

it is merely the power of receiving impressions of the external world through the senses.
it is the power of perceiving the objects of senses, both in their parts and as a whole.
a perception is an involuntary act of the human mind, which we do unconsciously. We reduce and organize these impressions and sensations into shapes and sizes, to make a clear picture of the outside world. To form coherent meaning of the outside world.

Unlike primary imagination, which is common among all individuals. Secondary may or may not be found in the common man but it was a particular distinction of an artist.
It is the secondary imagination that makes the work artistic.
IN secondary imagination, primary imagination is used as the raw material. Secondary imagination uses this work of perception and reshapes, resizes, and consciously arranges it, remodeling it into a work of beauty.
he uses the term ‘esemplastic‘ which means shaping and modeling power. Reshaping the objects of the real world, creating something that was never seen before, neither on the land nor in the sea.
it is an active agent that ‘ dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to create.
Secondary imagination is the unifying power of imagination that fuses the various faculties of the soul- intellect, will, emotion, and perception. It fuses the internal with the external, the subjective with the objective, the human mind with the external world, and the spiritual with the physical and material.
it is secondary imagination which is the active source of all the creativity of an artist, which creates artistic pleasure.

Coleridge talks about poetic diction in the 14th chapter of the Biographia Literaria.
He counters the ideas of Wordsworth and stresses organic poetry. Unlike Wordsworth, he believed that the feelings of emotions and ideas should be natural in poetry and should be capable of bringing out the same emotions in all irrespective of their class or whether they are from a city or country.
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Coleridge was addicted to opium and hence most of his work has philosophical implications.
He coined the term-” suspension in disbelief”
He was the first person ever to use the word ‘bipolar’ and ‘bisexual’.