This document summarizes Samuel Taylor Coleridge's views on prose, poetry, and poems as presented in his work Biographia Literaria. It defines prose as ordinary writing without a metrical structure, while poetry uses techniques like meter, metaphor, and rhyme to convey experiences imaginatively. For Coleridge, a poem must harmonize these literary elements, unlike prose. He saw poetry as the product of imagination, idealizing reality. In both prose and poetry the goal can be to convey truth, but poetry prioritizes passion through its use of meter.

1. Coleridge’s view on prose
,poem and poetry
● Presented by Hetal Dabhi

2. Name:- Hetal Dabhi
● Roll no:- 11
● Class:- sem-1
● Paper no:- 3 (Literary Theory and
Criticism)
● Year:-2018-19
● Email:-dabhihetal5500@gmail.com
● Submitted to :- S. B. Gardi English
Department
● Maharaja Krishnakumarsighji Bhavnagar
University

3. Coleridge
● Samuel Taylor
Coleridge was an
English poet, literary
critic and
philosopher.
● ‘Biographia Literaria’
by Coleridge.
● Biographia Literaria
is an autobiography
in discourse.

4. Coleridge’s view on Prose, Poem ,
and Poetry
● Introduction
The written monument of Coleridge’s
critical work is contained in 24 chapters of
Biographia literaria (1815-17). In this critical
disquisition, Coleridge concerns himself not
only with the practice of criticism ,but also
,with its theory. In his practical approach to
criticism, we get the glimpse of Coleridge
the poet; whereas in theoretical discussion,
Coleridge the philosopher came to the
centre stage.

5. Definition of prose
● Prose is so-called “ordinary writing”-
made up of sentences and paragraphs,
without any metrical (or rhyming )
structure.
● Ex:- If you write “I walked about all alone
over the hillside.” that’s prose.

6. Definition of poetry
A verbal composition designed to convey
experiences , ideas , or emotions in a vivid
and imaginative way, characterized by the
use of language chosen for its sound and
suggestive power and by the use of literary
techniques such as meter, metaphor and
rhyme.
• Ex:- If you say “I wondered lonely as a cloud
/ that floats on high o,er vales and hills”
that’s poetry.

7. Coleridge view on poem
● The creation on purpose that mixture in
what to say that convey in the prose and
poem it’s a simple way that can make
magical thought, imagination and muse.
● He determines that “Would then the
mere super addition of metre , with or
without rhyme , entitle these to the
name of poem?”

8. Continue......
● To this Coleridge replies that if metre is
super added the other parts of the
composition also must harmonise with it.
● In order to deserve the name poem each
part of the composition , including metre,
rhyme , diction and theme must harmonise
with the wholeness of the composition.
● Well, in prose the things are uncertain to
say but by the derived the nature to tale
that can be prepare in such order.

9. Coleridge view on prose
● The conception on the matters and
situation take place in the creational way to
drown in hierarchy that can better impact in
humans mind. We see that a poem contains
the same elements as a prose composition;
the difference therefore must consist in a
different combination of them , in
consequence of a different object
proposed.
● Prose writing and its immediate purpose
and ultimate end.

10. Continue.....
● In scientific and historical composition ,
the immediate purpose is to convey the
truth facts.
● In the prose works of other kinds
romances and novels, to give pleasure in
the immediate purpose and the ultimate
end may be to give truth.
● Thus , the communication of pleasure
may be the immediate object of a work
not metrically composed.

11. Coleridge view on poetry
● Poetry, according to Coleridge , is the
product of imagination working on the
object of life and nature.
● It is an activity of imagination, idealizing
the real and realizing the ideal.
● As colours are to the art of painting ,
words are to the art of writing poetry.

12. To be concluding
To conclude , metre is essential to a poem
to make it different from a prose piece; to
heighten the effect, to enliven pleasure and
to help us in memorizing a poem; metre
also balances the spontaneous overflow of
passion in the poet’s mind; metrical
language better conveys excitement than
prose . Since passion is the property of
poetry , metre is organic to poetry. Then
anything related to metre is actually related
to the spirit of poetry.

13. ...............
Hence, through all the details and faces
the concept is clear , Coleridge’s view of
poem and prose and he say that;
“I wish our cleaver young poets would
remember my homely definitions of
prose and poem; that is,
Prose- words in their best order;
Poem- the best words in the best
order.”