Literary Criticism Assignment
Wordsworth and Coleridge on the language of poetry
Abstract:
1798 marked the beginning of a new
perspective towards literary experience and composition. The Romantic Revival
beginning with Wordsworth and Coleridge presented new ideas and perspectives
about the nature of poetry and the ways of poetic compositions. From the
subject matter to the language everything was new. Two critical works Preface
to Lyrical Ballads (1801) and Biographia Literaria (1817) served as manifestos
of this literary movement and practice as they not only are a defense against
the popular criticisms of this school of poetry, but are also the works with
the theories and practice of this movement. And yet distinctions appear within
the views of the Romantic poets as well. This paper aims at identifying those
distinctions with special reference to both these works and their authors.
Lyrical
Ballads and the first Preface:
Published anonymously in 1798, Lyrical
Ballads, as mentioned earlier, presented a new type of type of poetry. “In the
eighteenth century, poetry existed within a hierarchy. Epics and tragedies were
at the pinnacle; comedy, satire and pastoral poetry were in the middle; and
short folksy ballads were at the bottom. To be considered a poem of literary
merit, a poem had to adhere to certain expectations: It used elevated diction;
dealt with characters in the upper classes; and used elaborate figures of
speech, such as excessive personification of abstract concepts. Wordsworth and
Coleridge broke with these conventions by using ‘incidents and situations from
common life’ and ‘language really used by men.’ In this they incorporated the
Romantic tenets of the appreciation of common man and nature into their
poetry.” (RMHOPE)
The first edition included,
“Coleridge’s
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,” as well as many
controversial common-language poems by Wordsworth, such as “The Idiot Boy”.
The “Preface” to
the second edition (1800) contains Wordsworth’s famous definition of poetry as the ‘spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings’ and his theory that poetry should be written in
‘the language really used by men’.” (Britannica) The
second point, one about the language of poetry, is what Wordsworth tries to
explain at length. And his explanation is what has lead to much critical speculations
since the time of the Preface’s publication.
“Wordsworth and Coleridge set out to overturn
what they considered the priggish, learned, and highly sculpted forms of
18th-century English poetry and to make poetry accessible to the average person
via verse written in common, everyday language. They emphasize the vitality of
the living voice used by the poor to express their reality. This language also
helps assert the universality of human emotions. Even the title of the
collection recalls rustic forms of art – the word "lyrical" links the
poems with the ancient rustic
bards and lends an air of
spontaneity, while "ballads" are an oral mode of storytelling used by
the common people.” (Contributors)
The beginning of the Preface
states this idea clearly:
‘The majority of the following
poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a
view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower
classes of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure.’
Wordsworth’s constant insistence on the use of rustic language for poetry and his popular statement that poetry
should be written in the language really used by men,are some of them arguments
on which Coleridge disagrees and in his Biographia Literaria published some years
later.
Biographia
Literaria:
The full
title of this work, published in two volumes with 23 chapters is Biographia
Literaria Or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions. The work
was written with an intention to produce a Preface for Coleridge’s poetry
collection titled Sibylline Leaves. However, it extended to become a work of
Coleridge’s philosophical and critical theories. It also contained the influences
of various critics such as Immanuel Kant, on Coleridge’s theory of literary
analysis. The work is also remarkable, as mentioned earlier, for its various
views on agreement and disagreement with Wordsworth’s theory of poetry. To put
this in his words; “I think it to be
expedient to declare once and for all the points I coincide with the opinions
with the opinions supported in that preface, and in what points I altogether
differ.”-Biographia Literaria [chapter 14]
“Giving his critical assessment of the language of prose and poetry as
reflected in Wordsworth’s theory of Poetic Diction, Coleridge objects to the
ambiguity in the use of the word real. Wordsworth maintains that the language
of poetry is selection of the real language of men. Coleridge argues that
everyone’s language varies according to the extent of his knowledge, the
activities of his faculties and the depth and quickness of his feelings.
Every man's language has its individual characteristics the common properties of
the class to which he belongs and the words and phrases of universal use. He points
out that the language used in the poems of Wordsworth differs greatly from the
language of a common peasant. Coleridge opines that for the word real; we
should substitute the word ‘ordinary’. He also objects to Wordsworth’s addition
of the words “in a state of excitement”, for emotional excitement may result in
a more concentrated expression, but it cannot create a noble and richer
vocabulary. Moreover, a common uncultivated mind, overpowered by a strong
passion can utter broken words or repeat the sets of words and phrases known to
him already. It would be very difficult for a poet to make such language fit
for poetry. Coleridge
also finds fault with Wordsworth’s conviction that the best part of the human
language is derived from the objects into which the rustic daily communicate.
The argues that rustic life is narrow and the rustic is actually acquitted with
only a few things of life. Therefore, the words and the combinations of words
derived from the very few objects with which the rustic are familiar, cannot be
considered to form the best part of human language.” (admin)
The
differing views:
Poetry for
Coleridge was more of a philosophical concept, the working process of the
creative mind, instead of Wordsworth’s spontaneous flow of powerful feelings
recollected in tranquility. A poem, consequently, for Coleridge, was the end
result of the creative process, a form of expression.
It will be an
obvious conclusion, considering the above statements, that the poets’ parameters
for the language would be different, since the understanding is different.
However, belonging to the same literary movement, their focus was the same, i.e
simplicity. Even though Coleridge defended an elevated language, his poems are
not so ornamental that they become difficult to understand. After reading both
works, one might find Coleridge more convincing, considering the amount of
loopholes Wordsworth’s Preface left unsolved. And yet if we look at Coleridge’s
essay, we find this overpowering of philosophical speculations instead of the
aesthetic one, which is the main parameter for any literary composition and its
analysis. Wordsworth’s overflow of powerful feelings, was because of the
Romantic emphasis on aesthetic delight.
Let’s not
forget that Coleridge’s major contentions were against the practice of
Wordsworth; he himself didn’t follow the parameters set by him. And this
intensifies when he tries to analyze Wordsworth’s statement about the language
of poetry being the one really used by men.
The major
problem was with the use of the word ‘real’. Considering the context in which
Wordsworth used the word, his intention seems to be of proving that the
language used by the people of the countryside, which is unaffected by the
various fake refinements of the city life. But stating that only the country
language is real is quite controversial. Aren’t the people in the city also
subject to various kinds of feelings and emotions?- is the question which
Coleridge poses. In fact, in his opinion, the city people, since they are more
educated, are able to think deeper and more rationally than the countrymen, who
spend half of their time in fields. The leisure of the city life also provides
the same kind of space for intellectual thinking, as the one found while
working in fields. This is what he states:
“No
two men of the same class or of different classes speak alike, although both
use words and phrases common to them all, because in the one case their natures
are different and on the other their classes are different.”
“Every man’s
language’ varies according to the extent of his knowledge, the activity of his faculties, and the depth or quickness of his
feelings.”
Conclusively,
we might say that both the poets’ views about the subject matter and language
are equally debatable. And also that, ultimately the final decision rests with
the writer or poet what kind of language s/he wants to use.
Bibliography
admin. Essays. 27 December
2017. web. 31 October 2018.
<http://hamandista.com/essays/coleridges-criticism-wordsworths-theory-poetry-poetic-diction/>.
Britannica, Editors of Encyclopedia. Lyrical
Ballads: Work by Wordsworth and Coleridge. 2 April 2014. web. 30 October
2018. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lyrical-Ballads>.
Contributors, Wikipedia. Lyrical
Ballads. Vers. 861811996. 30 September 2018. web. 30 October 2018. <
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lyrical_Ballads&oldid=861811996>.
RMHOPE. What is a Lyrical Ballad? 2
September 2012. web. 30 October 2018.
<https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-lyrical-ballad-357148>.
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