Coleridge

Samuel taylor coleridge

Cloe Andreacchio, Annemarie Chabod, Valeria Iannuzzi & Margot Pecoraro

"Poetry: the best words in the best order"

Relationship with other poets

Life

legacy and curiosity

Works

romantic features

analysis of a poem

TIME LINE

LITERARY PRODUCTION

1794

THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE

STYLE

1797

CHRISTABEL

1800

KUBLA KHAN

1797

1816

LANGUAGE

LYRICALS BALLADS

1798

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

1817

MAIN THEMES

1.

NATURE

2.

IMAGINATION

3.

SPIRITUALITY

4.

SUPERNATURAL

5.

SOCIAL CRITICISM

ROMANTIC FEATURES

the role of poetry, what the language of poetry should be like, the role of imagination and nature

The Rime of the Ancient Marineer- Kubla Kahn

Nature

Role of imagination

"Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception."

Language of poetry

"Poetry: the best words in the best order."

“Poetry is the highest kind that may exist without meter and even without the contra distinguishing objects of a poem.”

Role of poetry

RELATIONS

The relationship with British and Italian poets

Coleridge & Leopardi

Coleridge & Wordsworth

Content

• contemporaries
• adhered to the current of romanticism.
• expressed the feeling of the sublime in one of their poems but nevertheless giving a very different meaning.

Aim

Style and language

Imagination

Nature

LEGACY

CURIOSITIES

• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is considered a timeless text.
• Coleridge had a great influence on Britain and American poets.
• His writings are still regularly cited by contemporary Anglican theologians.
• His later political thinking became a fruitful source for the evolving radicalism of J. S. Mill.
• A special mention deserves the term coined in 1817 “Suspension of disbelief".

• At the age of eight he ran away from home and spent the night on the meadows.
• He coined a few unusual words for that time like "psychosomatic", "selfless", and "bisexual" .
• He became an opium addict because of a very painful disease.
• In December 1793 he enlisted in the king’s dragoons under the name of Silas Tomkyn Comberbacke..

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER - PART I

It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. 'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin; The guests are met, the feast is set: May'st hear the merry din.' He holds him with his skinny hand, 'There was a ship,' quoth he. 'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!' Eftsoons his hand dropt he. He holds him with his glittering eye— The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child: The Mariner hath his will. The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner.

'The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared, Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the lighthouse top. The Sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea. Higher and higher every day, Till over the mast at noon—' The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, For he heard the loud bassoon. The bride hath paced into the hall, Red as a rose is she; Nodding their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy. The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, Yet he cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner.

Rhyme scheme: ABCB 20 quatrains of 4 lines 1ˢᵗ / 3ʳᵈ lines: 8 syllables 2ⁿᵈ / 4ᵗʰ lines: 6 syllables Archaisms Rhetorical questions Similes Personifications Consonances Assonances Symbolisms Key expressions

And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he Was tyrannous and strong: He struck with his o'ertaking wings, And chased us south along. With sloping masts and dipping prow, As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe, And forward bends his head, The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, And southward aye we fled. And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen: Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken— The ice was all between. The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!

'At length did cross an Albatross, Thorough the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name. It ate the food it ne'er had eat, And round and round it flew. The ice did split with a thunder-fit; The helmsman steered us through! And a good south wind sprung up behind; The Albatross did follow, And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariner's hollo! In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white Moon-shine.' 'God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.

Rhyme scheme: ABCB 20 quatrains of 4 lines 1ˢᵗ / 3ʳᵈ lines: 8 syllables 2ⁿᵈ / 4ᵗʰ lines: 6 syllables Archaisms Rhetorical questions Similes Personifications Consonances Assonances Symbolisms Key expressions

Tone

Language

• fear
• admiration

• sublime
• elaborated
• enriched with archaisms, assonances, consonances and repetitions

Subject matter

Themes

• guilt
• suffering
• human atonement
• respect for God's creatures

• a sailor stops a guest who was going to a wedding to tell him his story
• he killed an albatross and got a spell
• he regretted what he did and atoned for his guilt
• the sailor now travels the world to teach men to love and respect God's creatures by telling them his story

QUIZ

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• archaic language
• depht, complexy, beauty
• rhythmic and melodic sounds
• combination of common and less common words
• simple vocabulary

He was widely famous as a critic for his critical work “Biographia Literaria” where he elucidated his theory of poetry.Prose and poetry contain the same elements: both are written in words and phrases, there are some differences among the combination of elements and objects and they are two different modes of writing. The function of a poem was to provide pleasure and pleasure increases when we appreciate each part of a poem.

Coleridge

Wordsworth

Style and Language

VS

His language is simple, near to the spoken one and far from poetic diction.

His language is Archaic and rich in sound devices.

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In Coleridge's works there are few references to his theory of the imagination. His most famous remarks are in Book XIII of Biographia Literaria, here he devides the imagination in 2 categories: primary and secondary imagination. All men are endowed with primary imagination, only a few are allowed access to the secondary. Primary imagination: subconscious, a fusion of perception that understands reality and elaborates it to communicate. Secondary imagination: includes elements of both conscious and subconscious activity; it is a bridge between the world of spirit and the world of matter. Fancy: acts mechanically bringing together different components in order to produce appropriate images. This particular conception of imagination is the result of a series of philosophical influences from Kant, Fichte, and Schelling.

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Coleridge

Wordsworth

Imagination

• It is relationship between man and nature
• It is a means of knowledge
• It is the faculty that allows people to bring back the wonder of childhood.

• It is the sovereign of creative power
• It is the human faculty that allows people to perceive the world around them
• It is the capacity to order memories and enrich them with the supernatural.

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Coleridge

Leopardi

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The feeling of the sublime:

• It is generated by human fear, and terror in front of intense natural phenomena.
• It comes from impressive natural elements.

L’Infinito The Feeling of the sublime:

• It is generated by something the poet can’t actually see. He can only imagine the dimension of the infinite.
• It comes from the power of imagination, from the poet’s mind and not from the outside world.

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Coleridge

Wordsworth

Content

• Description of supernatural characters and events.
• Poetry is a product of the unconscious.

• Description of things from ordinary life.
• Poetry is a spontaneous expression of feelings and emotions.

VS

• complex
• based on senses
• use of engaging images
• mystical and supernatural themes
• easy to digest for readers

Wordsworth

Coleridge

Aim

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His aim is to give the ordinary events the charm of novelty.

His aim is to make extraordinary events credible.

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The poetic language should be appropriate to the manner and matter of poetry, It should not contain grossness, vulgarity, and rusticism. Coleridge supported the figurative language in poetry because he thought that it vivified the poetic message. In addition to that, he opined the style of poetry: He thought that a poet must maintain his own style regarding grammar, diction, poetic logic, and argument.

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He did not view nature as a moral guide or a source of consolation and happiness.Event though he was Christian, he did not identify nature with God but it is the expression of the Divine. He saw nature and the material world in a sort of neoplatonic interpretation. For the poet all natural creatures must be respected, all natural elements are symbols.

Coleridge

Wordsworth

Nature

• It is a symbol of the One Life, a divine power that pervades all things.
• He imbues natural landscapes with symbolic meaning.
• He underlines the tragic, supernatural and sublime aspect of nature.

• It is a moral guide or a source of consolation.
• It is a part of us, a source of feelings and inspiration.
• It is an escape from the noise and artificiality of the city.
• He underlines the serene peaceful aspects of nature.

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