Coleridge: Life and works
Coleridge,
English lyrical poet, critic and philosopher, was born on 21 Oct. 1772
in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire. His father died when he was a young boy in
1781. Coleridge attended Christ’s Hospital School in London, Where he met
Charles Lamb, his lifelong friend. In 1795, he met Wordsworth and his sister
Dorothy, one of the most fruitful creative
relationships of his life. Their intellectual and artistic exchanges culminated
in Lyrical Ballads (1798), which
opened with Coleridge's "Rime of the
Ancient Mariner" and ended with Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey", a major land mark
of Romantic Movement. Besides the Rime of The Ancient Mariner, he
composed the symbolic poem Kubla Khan, (1797) Coleridge himself
claimed—as a result of an opium dream, in "a kind of a reverie"; and
the first part of the narrative poem Christabel (1797). In 1802,
Coleridge published his last and most moving of his major poems, "Dejection: An Ode.
Coleridge's
poetry and his brilliant conversation had earned him public recognition, and
between 1808 and 1819 he gave several series of lectures, mainly on William
Shakespeare and other literary topics. His only dramatic work, Osorio, written in 1797, was performed in 1813 under the title Remorse.
The last eighteen years of his life were the most
influential period of his life when he wrote Biographia literaria (1817), Lay Sermons (1817), Aids to
Reflection (1825), and The
Constitution of Church and State (1829).
He died on 25th July, 1834.
Coleridge as a poet
Coleridge
is one of the remarkable poets of Romantic period. Coleridge along with Wordsworth became the founder of Romantic Movement
with the publication of “Lyrical Ballads”
in 1798. They defined poetry in a new light in this work. Much
emphasis was given on simple language, imagination, originality and poetic
freedom. Coleridge’s poetry depicted the irrational
and supernatural in man and life. He is primarily known for his poetic fancy. In Coleridge we find the rare combination of the dreamer and
the profound scholar. The distinctive elements of his poetry include
supernatural, fancy imagery, nature, mystery, musical touch and suspension of
disbelief. In Coleridge’s view, the essential element of literature was a union
of emotion and thought that he described as imagination.
Elements of
Coleridge’s poetry
Coleridge is the greatest English poet of supernatural, Imagination and
fancy. Influenced by 18th century German poetry, he made extensive
use of the supernatural in his poetry. Supernaturalism is a powerful element in
his poetry and he has treated it in such a way that reader feels
it very natural. It comes most powerfully in ‘ Christable’, Kubla Khan and ‘ The
Rime of Ancient Mariner’. He has employed refined, suggestive and
psychological methods of mystery and horror in his poetry. The outstanding quality of Coleridge’s supernaturalism,
however, is that his writings do not excite one’s senses to a feverish pitch
and do not remain remote from human reality. He is capable of creating the
still, sad music of humanity.
Poetic career of Coleridge was short yet he has given very
remarkable poems. It can be divided in two types:
Supernatural poems: Like ‘Kubla
Khan’, ‘The Rime of Ancient Mariner’,
and ‘Christable’ are example of
excellent romantic imagination. Coleridge’s most outstanding contribution to
romantic poetry is his treatment of the supernatural. These are the poems that
made him immortal in the world of literature.
Conversational poems: Like ‘A frost at midnight’ ‘Dejection:
an ode’ reveals reflective side of his disposition.
Like other romantic poets, Coleridge worshiped nature and
recognized poetry’s capacity to describe the beauty of the natural world. His
poems express a respect for delight in natural beauty, close observation ,
great attention to detail. His poems reflect a wide variety which emphasizes
his belief in the importance of individuality.