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Assignment on:
Coleridges criticism of Wordsworth poetic diction
Introduction
In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge joined together to publish the first edition of
Lyrical Ballads, and mutually arose various theories which Wordsworth embodied
in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads and tried to put into practice in his poems.
Coleridge claimed credit for these theories and said they were half the child of his
brain. But later on, his views were changed; he no longer agreed with
Wordsworths theories and so criticized them.
Wordsworth was primarily a poet who had to become a critic by necessity. The
new experiment which he had made in the Lyrical Ballads (1798) called forth a
systematic defense of the theory upon which the poems were written. Wordsworth
protested against the traditions and usages set up by the pseudo-classical school
during the 18th century. His views about the language which was to be employed
in poetry raised a storm of protest against him even by such a close friend as
Coleridge. In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth made three
important statements all of which have been criticized by Coleridge.
Firstly, the proper subjects of poetry are incidents, situations and characters taken
from low and rustic life as it sets up powerful emotions in the mind of the poet. In
their condition of life the elementary passions and emotions find a clearer and freer
expression, for they are not repressed by conventions, as is the case with more
sophisticated people. They can be observed more clearly and expressed more
accurately. The poet must deal with such simple subjects with "A certain coloring
of imagination whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an
unusual way."
Though Wordsworth and Coleridge had been joint authors of the Lyrical Ballads,
Coleridge differed from Wordsworth on some fundamental points. He wanted to
clarify his own position. Seventeen years after the publication of the Preface, he
took up Wordsworth's theory and analyzed it part by part in his Biographia
Literaria.
Thus Coleridge refutes Wordsworths views on the themes and language of poetry
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