Biographia Literaria

The Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Biographia Literaria, his semiautobiographical work on aesthetic theory, in 1817. Charting the history of his literary career and melding amusing autobiographical anecdotes with what Coleridge calls “transcendental philosophy” (91), the text is an influential work of literary criticism. Capturing Coleridge’s political ideas about the French Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence, the work is also an important historical document. In its pages, Coleridge uses 19th-century philosophical ideas to contest the precepts of his close friend, Britain’s then poet laureate William Wordsworth, and place poetry at the center of reality.

Biographia Literaria opens with the recollection of Coleridge’s education at Christ’s Hospital grammar school and the influence of contemporary writers on developing minds. Coleridge remarks on the temperament of men of genius and the state of contemporary criticism. This leads him to address the critiques made of the preface to the Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems on which he and Wordsworth collaborated. Coleridge submits a balanced appraisal of Wordsworth’s poetic talent before taking up the topic of discrimination in aesthetic matters and mental associations in general.

In Chapters 5 to 7 Coleridge critiques David Hartley’s ideas about associational psychology. Coleridge argues that rather than merely receiving ideas and impressions from the world, mind has agency in perceiving reality. In Chapter 8 Coleridge entertains but interrogates Cartesian dualism. Influenced by Immanuel Kant, Coleridge develops his own theory of Imagination, which he defines as the “esemplastic power” (31). The human soul’s capacity to perceive a unified reality is distinguished from Hartleyan mental “associations,” which Coleridge calls “Fancy” (31). After a digression during which Coleridge recounts the trials and successes of his early literary career, he returns to discussing the nature of reality.

In Chapter 12 Coleridge sets out 10 theses, the core tenets of his “transcendental philosophy” (91). Elaborating on his definition of Imagination, he returns to a discussion of Wordsworth, and in particular the critical reception of Wordsworth’s preface to Lyrical Ballads. In Chapter 14 Coleridge defines both “poem” and “poetry” as a means of differentiating his own aesthetic theory from Wordsworth’s. To illustrate his theories, Coleridge examines exemplary poems by Shakespeare and contrasts 16th-century and contemporary literature.

In Chapter 17 Coleridge resumes his critique of Wordsworth’s literary theory, particularly Wordsworth’s investment in “rustic language” (117). Coleridge argues that poetry is inevitably artificial and that it is consciousness, not commonness, that defines poetic genius. Despite his criticisms of Wordsworthian theory, Coleridge lauds his friend as the greatest poet of his era. The superlative quality of Wordsworth’s poetry is due to Wordsworth’s ability to synthesize naturalistic imagery and spiritual profundity. Coleridge inverts Wordsworth’s aesthetic theory of the natural to form his own, which emphasizes the supernatural, accessed via the Imagination.

While Wordsworth seeks to unite prose and poetry, Coleridge distinguishes between prose and poetry, which is a metrical composition. He gives examples of failures in Wordsworth but proclaims that Wordsworth is capable of writing “the first genuine philosophic poem” (176). Coleridge recounts his tour of Germany in epistolary form in a chapter entitled “Satyrane’s Letters.” He describes sailing up the Elbe and his experiences of the German literati. The penultimate chapter is an entertaining review of foreign drama before Coleridge summarizes his theories in the conclusion. Commending his readers to God, Coleridge announces, “with this my personal as well as my literary life might conclude!” (226).