More ON STC

Hello, I am Samuel Taylor Coleridge; I was born on the 21st of October in the year 1772 in Devonshire England. I am fairly I should tell all of you a little bit more about my self in respects to criticism and literature, even though I would much rather fabricate who I am through the use of my imagination. I was a poet, romantic, philosopher, and also a critic. Most of you probably know of the project that my friend William Wordsworth and I put together titled, lyrical ballads, this work of art, like all of my work, exemplifies my philosophical and critical approach to literature. For example the lyrical ballads opens with my poem, the rime of the ancient mariner, which is now considered to be one of the pieces that opened the door for the period of romantic literature. In response to this work Mrs Anne Barbauld tole me that the only faults she found with the Ancient Mariner were – that it was improbable and had no moral. As for the probability – to be sure that might admit some question – but I told her that in my judgment the poem¡¯s chief fault was that it had too much moral, and that too openly obtruded on the reader, It ought to have no more moral than the story of the merchant sitting down to eat dates by the side of a well and throwing the shells aside, and the Genii starting up and saying he must kill the merchant, because a date shell had put out the eye of the Genii¡¯s son .

The imagination that can be found within the poem is what should be focused on rather than focusing on what didactive qualities can be found. I think that a crucial aspect of literature is with out a doubt imagination. In my Biographia Literaria, I wrote about the two crucial components of the imaginations, the first of the two is The primary imagination I hold to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite of the eternal act of creation of the infinite I AM. The secondary I consider, as an echo of the former, coexisting with the conscious will, yet still identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. I also believe that the concept of fancy is the lowest form of imagination because its only counters are fixed, there is no creation, but rather a recreation of that which has already been created, which takes little to no imagination. I also believe in the idea of poetic faith, meaning when an individual indulges in any type of art that their mind will awake from the lethargic of custom and it will then be directed to the loveliness and wonders of the world that is before us.

The last concept I am going to expose to you is the willing suspension of disbelief, which I have been told has already been mentioned in this class but let me help expand your knowledge in regards to the meaning behind the words. The willing suspension of disbelief is the aesthetic theory that tries to characterize one¡¯s relationship to art. Specifically when looking at the creation or reading of poetry, I think people should express a willingness to accept a work of fiction as truth, even if it is fantastic or impossible. I challenge you all to allow your self to be separated from the truth you know and take part in the truth that literature creates.