Coleridge viewed poetry as a mental process of the poet's mind that involves imagination and the modification of images, thoughts, and emotions. For Coleridge, poetry is a wider category than just poems in meter and can exist without the distinguishing form of a poem. True poetry results from the poetic genius through a mental process that connects ideas with images, the general with the concrete, and brings a sense of novelty to familiar objects through secondary imagination and a balance of emotion and order.

1. Paper no:-03 Literary Criticism
Topic:-Coleridge’s view on poetry
Name:-Andharia Darshangi K.
Roll no:-01
M.A.:-II
Sem:-III
Batch :-2012-13

2. The difference between Poem and
Poetry
• “Poetry of the highest kind may exist without
metre and even without the
contradistinguishing objects of a poem.”
• What is poetry?
“It is distinction resulting form the poetic
genius itself,which sustains and modifies the
images,thoughts and emotions of the poet’s
own mind.”

3. • John Shawcross
‘Poetry’ for Coleridge is an activity of poet’s
mind
• Poetry is wider category than poem
(David)
• Importance of secondary imagination

4. Mental process of poet
• Of sameness with difference
• Of the general,with the concrete
• The idea,with image
• The individual,with represenentative
• The sense of novelty and freshness,with old and
familiar objects
• A more than usual state of emotion,with more
than usual order
• Judgement with enthusiasm

5. ‘To establish the principles of writing rather than
to furnish rules about how to pass judgment
on what had been written by others.’
(Coleridge)