Assignment 103: Wordsworth and Coleridge as a Romantic Poet

This Blog is an Assignment of Paper no.103 Literature of the Romantics.In this assignment I am dealing with the topic  Wordsworth and Coleridge as a Romantic Poet.

Information :

• Name : Rajeshvariba H. Rana 
• Roll No. : 18
• Enrollment No. : 4069206420220023
• Semester : 1st
• Paper No. :  103
• Paper Code : 22394
• Paper Name : Literature of the Romantics
• Topic : Wordsworth and Coleridge as a Romantic Poet 
• Submitted to : Smt.S.B.Gardi,Department of English,MKBU                        
• E-mail : rhrana148@gmail.com 

Wordsworth and Coleridge as Romantic Poets

Romanticism was born in England in 1798, in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey. With their joint publication in 1798 titled Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge started the Romantic period in English Literature.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) :

Wordsworth is considered the father of Romantic poetry. His poetry was inspired by the beautiful and lonesome English countryside where he lived quietly in a lake district. He was first taught how to read and write by his mother, Mary, before going off to a low quality school near him. Later, he was transferred to a school of repute and later after his mother’s death in 1778, attended Hawks head Grammar School, and then Cambridge.

His first attempt at literary work was in 1787 when he published his first poem, a sonnet, in The European Magazine. Wordsworth had access to his father’s library when he was growing up, and he had a younger sister who later became famous called Dorothy Wordsworth, a poet and diarist. 

Wordsworth in his work, preferred what he called “a new type of verse…one really used by men.” Simple language formed an important part of the features of Romanticism. In so doing, he avoided the poetic diction of the Enlightenment poets.

Wordsworth is one of the proponents of Romanticism in poetry. This includes considering individual feelings, internal experiences, nature and religion of the poet. Wordsworth advocated that poetry should be articulated in a simple language that can easily be understood by men. As an example, he wrote poems using an ordinary language yet his poetry is good. He made poets break away from established rules of poetry and instead follow their inner feelings and experiences in order to speak for the ordinary people.

Wordsworth’s regards poetry as a natural spill over of powerful feelings. This means bringing out to the environment what is internally felt by the poet. His poems on nature have less emphasis on nature, but rather concentrate on the feelings of the poet as he thinks about nature. In a sample of his descriptive poems, he emphasises that feelings give more meaning to actions and not actions to feelings, thereby, implying that feelings determine actions. Aristotle does not agree with this statement as can be seen from the example he gave about the plot and character. According to Aristotle, “the plot was more important than character.” But with Wordsworth, he could have proposed that character was more important than plot because he emphasises that the feelings of a poet is the one that matters.

Wordsworth even established some of the key traits and ideologies of Romanticism in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads. The Romantic markers, like free expression of emotion and writing about ordinary life and nature, are established there.

Wordsworth gives poetry a new philosophical meaning unlike it was in the 18th century. He warned against threats of urbanisation and industrialization because it made people develop ignoring attitudes after unusual events. He felt the idea of people going to cities was unnatural and that it suppressed the soul. He argues that minds of people who go to the cities become dull and they often need violent stimulants to bring back their low psyches which Wordsworth refers to as spiritual deadness. He sees people in the city walking and they are quite insensitive and cut off.

Difference between Worthworth and Coleridge as a Romantic poet :

Wordsworth declares that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity. Coleridge opposes and objects to it. He says that Wordsworth is in this respect on the wrong track. He believes that poetry is the product of powerful emotions and imagination.

Most of Wordsworth's well-known poems are reflections on nature and country life. He does have some more political offerings as well, though. Coleridge's poetry, like his most famous long work The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, has a bit more gothic edge than we see in Wordsworth's poetry. However, both men were proponents of individual expression and valued emotion over reason. Both men were supporters of the French Revolution and its emphasis on individual liberty and the end of monarchy. Both men influenced and defined some of the parameters of the Romantic movement while also remaining informed of the political contexts of their era.

Coleridge wrote poems for Lyrical Ballads that focused more on the supernatural, but Wordsworth also incorporated supernatural elements of folklore into some of his poems. Likewise, Coleridge wove a deep reverence for nature into some of his supernatural poems, such as "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Both helped move English poetry in a new direction, away from the neoclassical and toward simpler, more personal forms.

Wordsworth's statement that he furnished the subject is of course not to be questioned. Rather, as in the case of his state  regarding his contributions to The Ancent Mariner, it is to be taken as revealing far less than might be claimed for him. It is true that in the long discussion prefixed to The Three Graves in The Friend and in Sibyl line Leaves Coleridge says nothing of any obligation to Wordsworth, but it is also true that he makes only the slightest admission of his obligations to Wordsworth in planning and composing The Ancient Mariner. Coleridge sometimes was reluctant to acknowledge his indebtedness to others. He does, however, explain his reasons for choosing the story for  poetic treatment, namely, " from finding in it a striking proof of the possible effect on the imagination, from an idea violently.  

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) :

Coleridge is remembered not only as a poet but also as a critic and a philosopher. He lived in a period where science, religion and politics were at variance. As a scholar, he aimed at bringing them into unity.Biographia Literaria is a remarkable work of Coleridge’s literary criticism. In this work he has anticipated the modern philosophical and psychological criticism of the arts. He also defined the nature of Wordsworth’s poetry.

S.T. Coleridge is one of the remarkable poets of the Romantic period. He was a most intimate friend of Wordsworth and their influence on one another was most productive. In Coleridge we find the rare combination of the dreamer and the profound scholar.

S.T. Coleridge is one of the remarkable poets of the Romantic period. He was a most intimate friend of Wordsworth and their influence on one another was most productive. In Coleridge we find the rare combination of the dreamer and the profound scholar.

The only purpose of romantic poetry is to give charm and pleasure; therefore, lyricism was the only thing on which the romantic poets used to focus. Resultantly, the poems become perfect in rhythm, sound and cadence. Romantic poets are masters in creating harmony in words due to lyricism in their poetry. The lyricism in the poetry of S.T.Coleridge is a piece of evidence that he is a romantic poet.

Coleridge creates a bridge between mind and soul. The human psyche (mind) and emotions are interlinked but there is a lot of difference in their paths. One follows the path of logic and reasoning whereas the other has feelings. Due to these differences, both are entirely distinct from each other. These differences create mental and emotional strain; harmony between the two can give a person pleasure and peace of mind.

Coleridge as a critic found musical effects characteristic of good poetry . Describing the " symptoms of poetic power " in the Biographia Literaria , Coleridge says that " the sense of musical delight , with the power of producing it , is a gift of imagination . " He cites Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis as an example in which " the first and most obvious excellence is the perfect sweetness of the versification " and there is " delight in richness and sweetness. Coleridge's concept of the form of creative thought had both personal and intellectual origins .

Almost all the features of romantic poetry are there in the poems of poet S.T. Coleridge. His poetry is not the poetry of reasoning. There is morality in some of his poems even though he does not want to reform the world. Like other romantic poets, he does poetry for the sake of poetry. Conversely, some critics think that there are some elements of the French Revolution in the poetry of Coleridge.

The most romantic poems of the poet S.T.Coleridge are:

The Rime of Ancient Mariner

Kubla Khan

The Relationship between Nature and the Mind in Coleridge’s and Wordsworth’s Poetry :

The topic of nature and how it was treated in poetry is one of the most discussed questions when talking about the period of Romanticism. William Wordsworth,Samuel Taylor were contemporaries and many critics say that both share many parallels in their lives as Romantic poets as well as in their private lives; others claim that the two men destroyed each other as writers. They were the founders of a newfound sensibility in writing, because they turned away from the traditional style of poetry. Instead, especially Wordsworth, introduced a poetic expression that was much more based on simplicity and conventionality using the language of nature. This is meant as a language, which is understandable by everybody because it is closer to the common language at that time, but also meant nature as a motif in poetry. Without these two authors it would be hard to understand and comprehend the period of Romanticism.

Romantics focused their works upon the following ideas:

Value of feeling over reason.

Highlighting both nature and imagination.

Characteristics of Romantic Poetry :

It is necessary to know more about romantic poetry to understand Coleridge as one of the poets of romanticism. Must have ingredients of romantic poetry that are obvious from the poems of romantic poets are,

• Illustration of emotions and feelings
• Discussion on nature
• Escapism
• Love for past
• Quest for beauty
• Freedom of mind
• Limitless thoughts
• Imagination and exaggeration
• Lyricism
• Supernaturalism
• Reference to landscapes
• Gloomy mods and melancholic themes

Conclusion:

The poetry of the Romantic Revival is in direct contrast to that of Neoclassical. In the 18th century, poetry was governed by set rules and regulations. There were well-prepared lines of poetic composition.

            The first thing that we notice in the poetry Romantic age is the break from the slavery of rules and regulations. The poets of the Romantic Age wrote poetry in freestyle without following any rules and regulations.

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Works cited

Gilpin, George H. “Coleridge and the Spiral of Poetic Thought.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 12, no. 4, 1972, pp. 639–52. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/449957. 

Kirsch, Adam. “Wordsworth's Strange Fits of Passion.” The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2005, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/05/strange-fits-of-passion. 

W, Strunk. “Modern Language Notes - JSTOR.” Jstor , The Johns Hopkins University Press, Nov. 1914, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2916171.