Wordsworth and Coleridge reacted against the poetry of the neoclassical era, which focused on aristocratic life and used complex, artificial language unintelligible to common people. Wordsworth chose to write about humble, rural folk and their simple lives and emotions in everyday language. He believed poetry should reflect natural human moods. Coleridge defined imagination and fancy, distinguishing primary imagination as a creative, god-like faculty and secondary imagination as echoing and completing its works. Both poets revolutionized poetry by focusing on nature and ordinary people's lives and championing a more natural and democratic style.

1. Wordsworth and Coleridge

2. Wordsworth as a critic:
• His poems are reaction against poems of
Dryden, Pope and Johnson.
• They believed in describing civilized life. Used
intellectual make up. Used a language which
was not understood by common man, with
code words.
• They portrayed educated people.

3. • In Neoclassical age the focus was on
aristocratic life, life of kings and queens.
Writers were writing about aristocratic class
only. They were paid for this.
• For ex. The Rape of the Lock by Pope.
• They were unreal. What they wrote was about
fashion. They wanted to be different and in
the wish for being different they used
different language, they coined words. That
made the language artificial.
• Poetry of fashion is not of a permanent kind.

4. • Their poetry was not natural. It was created
with efforts.
• Poetry reflects moods/emotions and it should
come naturally to a poet.
• City-bread v/s rural.
• Wordsworth “good bye to the city”
• Inspired by Democratic ideas
• A democratic people-poet of common man
• Revolution in poetry

5. • Wordsworth describes rural folk. He focuses
on the nature of human being/true nature of
human beings as it is.
• Uncivilized life, country life, rough language,
not refined language
• There has to be some refinement should be
done in the language of poetry.
• Element of vulgarity should be avoided.
• Life like theme, concept
• Incompleteness, not neat and clear as life is
such.

6. • Humble and rustic life was generally chosen.
Our elementary feeling exist there.
• Simplest-common-permanent-universal things
of life. Ideas are taken from this strata/stock.
• Simple feeling of rural people, language
straight, sentiments, thinking universal.

7. Coleridge
• For whom are we writing: for us or for
people?
• Literature is for common people and not for
specialists.
• This was the reason of adopting language of
people, which is immediately available to us,
to all.
• Rejection of elitist life.

8. • As a critic Coleridge focuses on the quality of
poetry.
• Two new term added to terminologies:
1. Imagination
2. Fancy
• Before him the terms were interchangeable.
• He said that these are two different
qualities/abilities of mind.
• We need to differentiate the two.

9. Imagination:
• Two types of imagination: Primary and
Secondary
• Primary imagination: living power, prime
agent of all human perception
• It is an eternal act of creation and a true poet
is a creator. (influence of Hindu scripture)
• Primary imagination is god like faculty of
creation.

10. • Imagination opens up door for man to create.
• Secondary imagination is an echo of primary
imagination. Models of primary imagination get
reproduced by secondary imagination.
• Primary imagination can relate an object to
another .
• Details, incomplete will be taken up by
secondary imagination. They will be taken care
of by secondary imagination so the whole of the
poem come out as a complete whole.
• A part to the whole or a whole to the part is
related.

11. • The function of imagination is seeing One in
All, All in One.
• Because Nothing is absolute, a part and
whole, everything is interlinked.
• Sameness with different truth and observation
with imagination.
• The romantic poetry is, imagination to wit,
mind to heart. Because emotions are
universal.
• Coleridge tries to make nature thought, and
thought nature.

12. • He brought revolution in sensibility.
• For him nature can be fearsome if you harm.
• Nature in Coleridge is angry and having a tone
of punishment.
• For example: The Rime of The Ancient Mariner
and Cristabel