Shweta Kataria

Ms. Hannah Varkey
British Romantic Literature
29thMarch 2017
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often discussed in association with his peer, William Wordsworth. This is due in part to their friendship and joint ventures on works such asLyrical Ballads. Although he is often paired with his counterpart Wordsworth, there are several differences in Coleridge’s poetic style and philosophical views. Coleridge’s poetry differs from that of Wordsworth, and his association with Wordsworth overshadows Coleridge’s individual accomplishments as a Romantic poet. Coleridge’s poetry complicates experiences that Wordsworth views as very simple and very common place. Samuel Taylor Coleridge has a poetic diction unlike that of William Wordsworth, he relies more heavily on imagination for poetic inspiration, and he also incorporates religion into his poetry differently. Coleridge’s different views, combined with his opium addiction, led to an eventual breach in his friendship with Wordsworth.

Despite any difference, the two poets were compatible because they were both “preoccupied with imagination, and both used verbal reference in new ways”. In 1798 the publication of their joint effort,Lyrical Ballads, signified the height of their relationship. This came at a time when they were together in Alfoxden, where they had enjoyed the simple pleasures of spending time together, discussing ideas, and devising schemesfor publications.

The two men were at the forefront of what is now known as theRomantic period. For Romantics, nature was the only source of real inspiration, the only place where men could truly connect to their deepest and most powerful emotions. In the rugged beauty of theLake District,Wordsworthand Coleridge had nothing but inspiration. They began to talk of a new kind of poetry, one that relied on the reader’s imagination and the honesty of simple language to evoke powerful feelings. They decided to write a collection of poetry together.Wordsworth’s job was to write poems about everyday topics; Coleridge would tackle poems aboutpersons andcharacters supernaturalthat were true enough to provoke in readers “that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.

Comparisonof Wordsworth and Coleridge as poets of Romanticism
Romanticism, generally speaking is the expression in terms of art of sharpened sensibilities and heightened imaginative feeling Emotion and imagination are the bedrock of Romanticism. Romanticism stands for freedom and liberty, and has therefore been designated as ‘Liberalism in Literature’. The poetry of this age was marked by intense human sympathy and a consequent understanding of the human heart.
On impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man
of moral evil and of good
Then all the sages can.

– Willam Wordsworth
Off, wandering mother ! peak and pine !
I have power to bid thee flee !
Off, woman, off ! this how is mine –
Though thou her guardin spirit be,
Off, woman off ! tis given to me.

– Coleridge
Wordsworth and Coleridge were the two great poets of Romanticism and it was by their joint efforts that the romantic revival in poetry was brought about during the nineteenth century.
Wordsworth and Coleridge were unhappy with the decorative language of the eighteenth century poets and were completely dissatisfied with the kind of poetry that was written by the pseudo – classical poets of the eighteenth century. Both the poets felt that the type of poetry produced was neither desirable nor pleasing to the heart and soul of man. Both the poets were gifted with the qualities of imagination, sensibility and creative power of course, there were some notable differences in their temperament.
Coleridge’s intellect was quick, versatile, and penetrating. Wordsworth was less versatile but more deeply meditative Coleridge was idealistic and ranged for in the realms of abstract thought and Wordsworth though he changed them by the imagination, sought his inspiration among the things of everyday life.

The first piece of work of their close association was the ‘Lyrical Ballads’. Their joint venture brought about a transformation in poetry and introduced a new way in poesy thought.
Studying the Lyrical Ballads shows some similarities and contrasts in the outlook of Wordsworth and Coleridge as poets. William Wordsworth studied the simple objects of nature and gave them the imaginative colours. It wasn’t his business to make excursions in the world of supernaturalism. It was left to Coleridge to introduce the world of supernaturalism, mystery and magic in poetry in this way, Wordsworth liked to give to the objects of nature, the colour of his imagination, it was left to Coleridge to make the supernatural natural. As Coleridge remarks : “It was agreed that my endeavors should be directed to persons and characters supernatural….Wordsworth, on the other hand was to propose to himself as his subject to give the charm of novelty to things of everyday” so he aimed at representing “Perfectly that side of the romantic imagination which seeks to lose itself in dream and marvel” .Coleridge introduced the dream-like quality which romanticism upheld and clarified by the power of his imagination he created a world a supernaturalism, magic and mystery in ‘The Ancient Mariner, Christabel and Kublakhan. Some of his verses are –
“Holds him with hisglitteringeye –
The wedding Guest stood still
And listens like a three year’s child:
The Mariner hath his will
The wedding Guest set on a stone
He cannot choose but hear”
-The Rime of Ancient Mariner
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure – dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea”
Wordsworth, on the other hand, presented the common and simple life of peasants and shepherds, and realistically described what he felt and experienced in his own life.Insteadof going to the world of imagination, mystery and magic, Wordsworth lived on the plan of common life concentrating on the life that he saw around him, some of him.
Coleridge went to themedievalperiod for creating the atmosphere of magic and mystery. Wordsworth lived on the pain of common life concentrating on the life that he saw around. He did not leave the earth and his owntimes. The call of the middle ages was purely for Coleridge.In Wordsworth’s poems we find an imaginative record of the pastoral life as well as the pastoral beauties of place he lived in.This is not so in the case of Coleridge. He lived in a world of his own thoughts and fancies, and did not take care of the external suggestions.

One special thing about William Wordsworth and Coleridge was that both of them always loved and appreciated nature. Wordsworth saw the spirit of joy in nature andat least in the early poems of Coleridge the spirit of joy in nature is represented. Wordsworth felt the divine spiritpervading the objects of nature. Coleridge also noticed the spirit ofGod permeating the objects of nature.

Wordsworth did not have the high imaginative power which Coleridge had his poems of supernaturalism. The imaginative power of Wordsworth was on a lower level particularly because he had not to deal with themes of imaginative character, but was mainly concerned with the life of the simple people. The imagination of Wordsworth was of a high character in poems concerning philosophy, but in poems of nature, Coleridge was for superior to Wordsworth.Coleridge was the master of narration verse. The Ancient Mariner is a fine example of narrative perfection. Wordsworth lacked the narrative skill.

Coleridge and Wordsworth valued artful poetry. Although they had some different theoretical opinions, both of them succeeded at making poetry that is complex and dense enough to withstand two centuries of analysis, and modern critical practice has not yet fully distilled the potential meaning to be found in their work. It is easy to see how their work places them firmly in the realm of the Romantics, but it is quite difficult to come up with a single form of modern criticism that can fully deal with these two poets. Mimetic forms of criticism, including contemporary Platonists and Aristotelians, could offer observations about how the poetry of Wordsworth seeksto imitate Nature and the effects of Nature on the individual. He works to reconstruct an experience for the reader. Likewise, these same critics could say that Coleridge’s imitation of human beings in poems like “Christabel” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” teaches us something about human nature and behaviour.

Concluding, we can say that, Wordsworth is a man who loves nature as the creation of God, he can feel a soul, a friend, a guide and a true companionship in the nature so he is a kind of poet who keeps secondary imagination as it also provides with the soulful effect of a nature. On the other side, Coleridge is a man who is totally different from him, is a primary imagination being who is in a state of unconsciousness and whatever he is experiencing either fake or artificial just writing it down. Wordsworth steady nature and moral preoccupations had given effect on Coleridge’s wavering will and rambling tendencies. Yet, words worth could not stop the decline in Coleridge’s poetic power, but one can say that their contribution to English was a landmark for the Romance in English poetry.

Works Cited
William Wordsworth, Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads, (Harcourt: 1995), 424.

William Wordsworth: Poet of the Lake District
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria,
David Perkins,English Romantic Writers,2nd Edition, (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995), 503.