S.T. Coleridge is considered an autochthon of the Romantic Age and belongs within the category of primoradial romantic poets. Coleridge assisted William Wordsworth in preparing the collection when he jotted down the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads.” In truth, rather than being a starry-eyed poet, S.T. Coleridge was a philosophical poet. Coleridge was a Romantic poet endowed with sparkling wit and mature wisdom. In the throes of his contemporaries, romanticism tends to adopt a single dominant hue; however, in Coleridge’s poetry, it embraces all the darker and brighter parts of existence while also achieving the accomplishment of convolution.
Coleridge’s poetry allows for the spirit of unquestioning adventure, the felicity of a lucky strike, and the romance of action. There is the allure of the unexplored territories, which are filled with wondrous and terrifying features. Coleridge’s poetry is characterized by instinctive representation of a range of emotions, as well as a sense of familiarity and ease. It’s also strange and terrifying, sensitive and soothing, desolating and heavy-hearted. Unlike most of his contemporaries, S.T. Coleridge values the ability to convey a story rich in dramatic intricacies.
The creative treatment of the supernatural is the sum and content of Romanticism. His poems “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” are filled with pure supernaturalism. His perspective on supernatural matters never undermines our blind faith. Instead of plunging into the realms of the supernatural abruptly, he first conquers his readers’ faith with diverse renderings of the common garden landscape and then, gradually, proceeds to account for his faith and leads the supernatural aspects into play.
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Coleridge’s poetry is especially notable for its medievalism, as the inhabitants of the Middle Ages believed in sorcery and witchcraft, as well as superstitions. The word “Ancient” in the opening words of “The Ancient Mariner” refers not just to the mariner’s elderly age but also to the ancient times. The references to the “Cross Bow,” “The Vesper” by the “Shriving Hermit,” and the “Prayer to Mary Queen” in this poem transport us to the Middle Ages. In reality, the majority of his poetry evoke a mediaeval mood. Coleridge’s yearning for the past, which he shares with Keats, Byron, and especially Waller Scott, distinguishes him as a romantic poet.
It has been proposed that Coleridge’s dream capacity was the source of both his brilliance and grandeur as a poet and his puniness as a man. Coleridge is the first and most famous Don Quixote in English verse. Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” is a first-rate visionary poetry with a phantasmagorical ambiance. Several dreams in “Ancient Mariner” provide the poem’s true rationale. Thus, the mystical quality of his poems contributes to his Romanticism.
Coleridge, like all romantic writers, had a strong affinity for nature. Wordsworth was a huge inspiration to him at the start of his career. His “Frost at Midnight” is quintessential Wordsworthian in both spirit and phrase. Coleridge believes that the flowers we obtain from nature have no separate life from our own. Nature, according to Coleridge, comes into view tickled pink, but according to our inner weather, it is lugubrious, which reveals his Romanticism. This perspective on nature is expressed in his final mind-blowing poem, “Dejection: An Ode”;
“O Lady! We receive but what we give.
And in our life alone does nature liv,
Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud.”
Coleridge’s love poetry is best known for its inventive ability. His poetry brings to light the deftness with which mental images are excellently handled by an unerring creative sense. He also distinguishes himself from others by discerning between fantasy and imagination. Coleridge desired that poetry be limited by the boundaries of imagination rather than those of fancy.
Coleridge, like many romantic and idealistic writers, has a deep love of music. As a result, he is regarded as one of the most dulcet and lyrical poets in English poetry.
Coleridge’s mellifluous creativity is best expressed in poems such as “The Ancient Mariner,” “The Kubla Khan,” and “Youth and Age,” among others, demonstrating his enticing predisposition toward Romanticism. In regard to “Kubla Khan,” he says, “With loud and extended music, he could erect Kubla Khan’s pleasure dome in the air.”
To sum up our consideration of Coleridge’s Romanticism, we can confidently conclude that his poetry is the most sublime synthesis of all that is most ethereal and faultless in Romantic poetry.
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