Essemplastic Imagination or the Theory of Imagination

Essemplastic Imagination or the Theory of Imagination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 AD – 1834 AD)

As per R.A. Scott James, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was “A metaphysical, Transcendental philosopher, a Romantic age poet, and father of ‘Impressionistic Criticism’.

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 1772 AD – 1834 AD) who’s moralistic quote , “He prayeth best who loveth best , all things big and small, for dear God who loveth us he made us to loveth all” from his works ‘The rime of Ancient Mariner’ , is still respected and popular, and for this reason he is also known as ‘Priest of Romanticism’.

Famous works of Romantic poet Coleridge are :

1) Rime of Ancient Mariner

2) Kubla Khan

3) Biographia Literaria

4) The Principles of Genial Criticism

5) Christabel

In ‘Biographia Literia’s Chapter 4 Line 6 Coleridge states the definition of ‘poetry’ as , “a union of deep feeling and profound thought and about business of poet as “Excitement of emotion for the purpose of pleasure through the medium of beauty”. Through these lines, Coleridge tries to stress on the need of feelings, emotions, passion in poetry.

Coleridge’s theory of Poetry

As per Coleridge ’pleasure is the aim of poetry’ and ‘pleasure’ should be through the medium of beauty. ‘Beauty’ is an art form that can be generated by the presence of unity. By ‘unity’ Coleridge meant to emphasize on the unity of artist’s mind and state of mind of readers, and he defined ‘art’ as a demonstration of truth.

‘Truth’ lies in human problems of life. Thus Art should deal with problems of human life. Thus in this way Coleridge’s theory of poetry seems to be admirable and acceptable.

Coleridge although agrees upon Plato’s thought that “All art is nothing but an imitation” but Coleridge’s originality is expressed in his ‘theory of imagination’ where he states that, an art piece should look like a real thing and as human problems are imitated , art is an imitation of life. Life being full of emotions and feelings, which is highly subjective, it is life that makes an art piece unique and not mere an imitation.

Coleridge opposed the strict following of rules of Classical Age and opined that, “basis of poetry is imagination’ and ‘poetry must be different than proze’.

Coleridge as a critic.

Coleridge’s work of criticism is known as ‘Principles of Genial Criticism’. It deals with theory of fancy and imagination. Coleridge differentiates ‘Fancy’ and ‘Imagination’ and states that there are 2 types of imaginations, first is ‘Primary imagination’ and second is ‘Secondary imagination’.

Functions of Imagination:

1) “To dissolve, dissociate, disperse and create new art to make them into one”.

2) “To make External as internal and internal as external”.

3) Imagination intermingles and connects Thoughts with Nature and Nature with Thoughts.

4) Association of 

( i) Reason of Man with Reason of God.

(ii) Sameness with Difference.

(iii) General with Concrete.

(iv) Idea with image.

(v) Individuality with Representative

Thus, Imagination is the power of Soul.

Imagination = Feelings (heart) + Thoughts (in mind), which implies that Imagination is a union of heart and mind.

Outcome of imagination is ‘thrill’.

Coleridge differentiates ‘Fancy’ and ‘Imagination’ in the following ways.

Coleridge deals with two kinds of imagination, (i) Primary and (ii) Secondary.

Coleridge’s Principles of Genial Criticism

1) Coleridge’s concern was to discover the creative power and establish principles of writing. Ultimate ends of his criticism was to establish principles of writing.

2) Coleridge did not want to put rules of evaluation of poetry which he expressed through his words, “to judge poets is a faculty of poets”.

He also believed that the work of an artist should be judged in the spirit in which it was produced and that fixed rules for evaluation of a literary creation can put the effort of creating an art in vain.

Finally it can be said that the principles of Coleridge answer the following questions ,

First, Who should Judge the poets? And second, How should poets be judged?