Before I borrowed the books from the library which I blogged about the day before yesterday I was rereading The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I had made notes and written about a lot of ideas in the Biographia Literaria last year. The Biographia Literaria is Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's literary biography. I reread what I wrote last year and here are some ideas from chapter IV of Biographia Literaria.
The chapter focuses on the following themes. Lyrical ballads with the preface-Mr. Wordsworth's earlier poems-On fancy and imagination-The investigation of distinction important to the fine arts.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes about Wordsworth.
The main theme is the prevailing criticism about Wordsworth's poetry owing to some themes in some poems.
The difference between genius and talent is talked about.
There are several themes that can form the subject matter of poetry.
1. Ordinary homely life and joys.
2. Sublime exalted spiritual ruminations or meditations.
3. Colloquial or uncouth subjects.
Darwin caused a deterioration of the taste of the British public, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Robert Southey's poems are discussed in conjunction with the formation of the new school of poetry and debate about who is the founder of this new school.
Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads and descriptive sketches are described and analysed.
If colloquial or uncouth subjects become the themes of poems is it due to inattention, or deliberate choice.
What is the reason for the introduction of uncouth subjects?
Everyone was mad at the poets when they realized that deliberate choice caused them to make uncouth themes the subject matter of their poetry.
This happened in 18th century England.
Southey, Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are contemporaries.
There is a debate going on about Lyrical Ballads.
Some poems in this are of the highest order
Some are very low.
And some occupy the middle place.
It appears that when Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads were published there was a loud outcry of criticism.
If a hundred lines from the Lyrical Ballads were excluded from the final publication nine tenths of the criticism of Wordsworth as a poet could be avoided, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
He analyses the criticism and the reasons for the criticism.
In the process he analyses the poems themselves to ascertain if they deserve this criticism.
He says that sometimes reverting to humbler themes and colloquialisms is not necessarily bad but could be a charming characteristic of newer or younger writers.
However the vehement opposition to Wordsworth's writings opposed this theory.
Especially when it was apparent that the apparent imperfections were not mistakes but deliberate choices there was a lot of anger toward Wordsworth's poetry.
There was all round acknowledgement that we was a brilliant poet.
But there was confusion because they thought why was such a brilliant poet choosing such ignoble themes.
The very ground of their beliefs seemed to be questioned.
But problematic was the fact that different people hated different poems.
It was not as though all the ire by all the critics were directed toward the same poem.
The meaning of the English word psyche is mind or spirit.
The meaning of the Greek word psyche is butterfly.
The poetic soul of a poet as it grows to full development undergoes many changes.
It is similar to how a pupae becomes a butterfly.
Alloy in a weight of bullion versus coins in a rouleau of gold.
Every single poem in lyrical ballads is extolled and criticized by different people, except the ones with very sublime themes which were praised by everyone.
These are the major ideas in chapter IV of Biographia Literaria.
Some facts about Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's life.
Samuel Taylor coleridge was born in1772. The most famous poem written by him is Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Biographia Literaria was the biography of his literary life. Coleridge was friends with William Wordsworth. In the Introduction to the Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the editors? say the Samuel Taylor Coleridge's major concern was analysing sources of false taste of his day. He said there is lack of clear standards for literary judgement and creating criteria for literary worth is his major concern.
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