The Language of a Poet - Coleswoth V. Wordsworth

Stephen Kozal

Professor Daniel Shea

English 202: Major English Authors II

22 February 2012

The Language Of A Poet

As Coleridge so precisely stated, referring to Wordsworth, there is "a radical difference in our theoretical opinions respecting poetry." Although Coleridge often referred to Wordsworth poetry as "genius," he also found the language that Wordsworth used "peculiar and strong, but at times knotty and contorted." Coleridge believed that Wordsworth ability to "carry on the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood; to combine the child's sense of wonder and novelty with the appearances which every day for perhaps forty years had rendered familiar; ... this is the character and privilege of genius . . .." He also believed that "to admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of originality." Coleridge's statement concerning a "radical difference" is indeed true. Coleridge wrote with a more imaginative style, while Wordsworth wrote poetry in a more fancy or simplified fashion.

While both authors genuinely respected each other style of writing and agreed on many aspects of poetry, there is one definite difference that separated both authors. This difference is based on the language in which both poets used to embrace and connect with their readers. Coleridge believed that, without a doubt, there is a clear and distinct difference in the language in which poetry should be portrayed and the language in which the common folk uses on a daily basis, in their "real life." Coleridge goes on to say that poetry is based on the more imagination, rather than the common realism that Wordsworth delivers in his poetry. Coleridge would rely on primary imagination or "magical power" to connect to his audience, whereby Wordsworth would connect to his audience on a more practical level. It is Coleridge's belief that "primary imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception" and the secondary imagination is an "echo of the first. . . coexsisting with the conscious will." According to Coleridge, Wordsworth used a "fancy" style of writing, whereby there is no other means of idealism other than "a mode of memory emancipated from the order of time and space" and that all of the materials used to create poetry is "ready made from the law of association."

The words used by both poets differ dramatically. Coleridge believed that simplifying the language and using "common language" as Wordsworth used, merely limited the writer's vocabulary and thus narrowed the concepts on which to compose. Coleridge believed that "every man's language varies according