Coleridge on Wordsworth
Coleridge on Wordsworth
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Social and Political Theory
by CHRISTINE WINBERG
acceptation (my
is surprising t
acceptation',
significance of
'permanence' o
hopes will imp
out, anyone wh
diction or sy
between rustic
of discourse ar
the stress of ge
Coleridge's r
convey the imp
is peppered wit
It is confined t
'the language
comparison be
differences in
rustic diction
poems of the
men' is for gen
original rustic
Coleridge imp
men' are one a
he attributes to Wordsworth:
The language of these men (i.e. men in low and rustic life)
I propose myself to imitate and, as far as possible, to
adopt the very language of men'.13
The language, too, of these men has been adopted (purified indeed
from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational
causes of dislike or disgust) ... 14
(1198-100)
My purpose was to imitate and, as far as possible, to adopt the very
language of men; and assuredly such personifications do not make up
any natural or regular part of languages. 15
(11201-4)
I have included the latter part of the second quotation to show that
'the very language of men' has nothing to do with rustic diction.
While 'the very language of men' may not be a satisfactory term for
Wordsworth's diction (it should be remembered that it 'imitated', in
another. The
powerful feel
metaphorical,
My lonely angu
but by avoidin
his emotions, t
lacking in the
Coleridge argu
and Wordswort
the foregoing
Prose may yet
seems to hav
conversational
theory of poet
Last of The F
'current in all r
rustic would have used them? Nowhere in the Preface does
Wordsworth state that he is content to limit himself to a rustic
vocabulary and syntactical arrangement. His aim is to revivify
poetic language, not to contribute to its stultification. In the midst
of all this hairsplitting, Coleridge has completely lost touch with the
spirit behind Wordsworth's innovations.
Coleridge suggests, correctly, that Wordsworth's use of the word
'real' is a reaction to the 'gaudy affectation'19 of current poetic
styles, and that Wordsworth has, in consequence, chosen a style as
remote as possible from the 'false and showy splendour which he
wished to explode'. 20Wordsworth, he states, is not the first poet to
opt for simplicity of style: the German poets Garve and Geliert have
done so before him. Their style is:
just as one would wish to talk, and yet dignified, attractive, and
interesting; and all the time perfectly correct as to the measures of the
syllables and the rhyme.21
Wordsworth co
midst of the ab
which can be i
to 'cancell out'
feelings. Any
immediate effe
the control of
can thus lift '
level. Metre has
its reality, an
unsubstantial e
a parallel in A
element in trag
changes the fee
metre, Word
Shakespeare ar
even the artles
the pathos of
Wordsworth's i
Wordsworth
operation of m
metrical comp
although he d
confining him
seem to ackno
for he states:
The discussion
ingenious and to
He then goes on
But I cannot fin
separately. On t
metre by the p
of) its combinat
Has Coleridge n
integral part o
whole point
'superadded' to
can its powers
seems at times
when he does
suggests that
quite free of p
For Coleridge,
mind, so it i
passions and vo
spirit of life th
and volitions in
to create them
added a disposi
things as if th
passions, which
real events, ye
which are ple
passions produ
motions of thei
in themselves:
readiness and
especially thos
from the struc
external excitem
Coleridge's def
What is poetry
that the answer
is a distinction
and modifies t
mind. The poet
man into activit
according to th
spirit of unity
synthetic and
appropriated th
by the will and
though gentle
itself in the b
qualities: of s
concrete; the
representative;
objects; a more
order; judgem
enthusiasm and
harmonizes the
nature; the ma
our sympathy w
In these two
similarity. The
Wordsworth b
man speaking
poet is 'endow
'comprehensiv
on an even g
perceiving thei
Wordsworth al
Immediately f
states:
But whatever portion of this faculty we may suppose even the greatest
Poet to possess, there cannot be a doubt that the language which it will
suggest to him, must often, in liveliness and truth, fall short of that
which is uttered by men in real life, under the actual pressure of those
passions, certain shadows of which the Poet thus produces, or feels to
be produced, in himself.39
The original
dramatic tech
Wordsworth h
attempted to
Coleridge, in
remarked that in The Thorn Wordsworth became 'dull and
garrulous', in The Idiot Boy he became idiotic, and in The Sailor s
Mother ht adopted perfectly rustic speech. Now, in order to suit his
present argument, Coleridge quotes from the second edition and
later poems (when the experiment is over and a new poetic is
emerging, one that has to do with Wordsworth's interest in himself)
and even quotes from poems that are not 'lyrical ballads'. The
poems that Coleridge quotes from are: The Rainbow (1802), Lucy
Gray (1800), Idle Shepherd Boys (1800), The Blind Highland Boy
(1807), Ruth (1800), There was a Boy (1800), Song at the Feast of
Brougham Castle (1807), Joanna (1800), and The Excursion (1815).
Not one of the poems, which are quoted to illustrate the
distinctiveness of Wordsworth's style rather than the subjugation of
his personal style in favour of the rustic idiom, is an original 'lyrical
ballad'.
Coleridge argues that Wordsworth uses polysyllabic words which
are not used in ordinary conversation, and moreover, Wordsworth
does heighten his diction.48 Coleridge mentions, for example,
'concourse wild' in There was a Boy. Other examples include: 'The
thrush is busy in the wood' (a description of a bird singing); 'Both
earth and sky keep jubilee' (a beautiful May day); 'That uncertain
heaven received into the bosombf the steady lake' (the reflection of
sky in a lake). In short, Coleridge concludes:
were there excluded from Mr Wordsworth's poetic compositions all
that a literal (my italics) adherence to the theory of his preface would
exclude, two-thirds at least of the marked beauties of his poetry must
be erased.49
should be centr
the complemen
In this idea orig
agreed that m
characters supe
our inner nature
procure for th
of disbelief f
Wordsworth, on
to give the cha
feeling analog
attention from
and wonders of
which, in conse
have eyes yet s
nor understand
This poetic ma
which both W
emphasis on
Newton and L
than (as Godw
which is an aff
Wordsworth e
and Coleridge,
the end is the
world which h
dulled by mec
disputed by ei
University of C
NOTES