Biographia Literaria: Thinking Activity

How to distinguish a poem from a novel, essay, or any prose work, has been an on going discussion since the beginning of literature. Several scholars and critics have tried to define the boundaries of both these literary compositions, with no final result. One such critic, originally a poet, was S.T Coleridge. Being a Romantic poet, Coleridge's ideas regarding poetry and the factors distinguishing it from prose, are at some point philosophical and somewhat ambiguous. Especially, his claim that, what distinguishes poetry from a poem is the poet's imaginative skill, is a characteristically Romantic idea, in my opinion.

The general impression of the difference between a prose work and a poem is that of the arrangement of the words. But we can point out that it is often not so. We can however say that, the way of using language in both the compositions is what differentiates the one from the other. And yet, we'd be wrong, as we often have poetic prose and prosaic poems. Thus, Wordsworth and Coleridge state, "there can be no essential difference between the language of prose and of metrical composition." According to me, a poem though having kaleidoscopic images and ideas, retains its "wholeness", as Coleridge points out, and can still be called a poem, no matter what its type is. Whereas, in a prose work, these kaleidoscopic images and ideas become, if not always, either digressions or a completely new genre of writing. A poem, no matter how many types it has, remains a poem, whereas a prose work can be a novel, an essay, a journal, a letter, etc. 

Another distinction which Coleridge provides in his essay, is that of poetry and a poem. Coleridge states, as mentioned earlier, " this distinction results from the poetic genius itself, which sustains and modifies the images, thoughts, and emotions of the port's own mind." Disagreeing with Coleridge, I am of the opinion that, poetry is more of an umbrella term. Whereas poem is a division within this term. The term poetry, encompassed all literature, when it was used by the earliest of writers such as Aristotle and Plato, the reason being that the major part of literature was in verse form. However, that is not the case now, as we have more prose works being written than poetry. Hence, as I mentioned earlier, a poem can be of various types, but would still belong to the term poetry. Epic, elegy, ballad, sonnet are all ultimately, types of poems and therefore belong to the section of poetry.