Biographia Literaria

Essay | Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge's View on Fancy and Imagination

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Discuss Coleridge's concept of 'Fancy' and 'Imagination' with reference to Biographia Literaria In Biographia Literaria Samuel Taylor Coleridge - explains two important ideas fancy and imagination He says that these two powers help us create and understand poetry But they are very different Fancy is simple and mechanical It just copies existing things But imagination is deep and creative It helps a man to create something new Coleridge believed that imagination is the true soul of poetry He also divides imagination into two types Let us study this concept clearly Imagination as a Creative Power Coleridge says that imagination is the most essential part of poetry It is powerful and creative It helps poets mix many thoughts and images into one strong feeling or idea This power helps us feel beauty and truth in poetry Imagination gives order to our thoughts It makes something new and meaningful Coleridge uses a

special word for it esemplastic This means shaping different things into one whole So imagination is not just copying It is creating something new In the following writing we will examine its two special variants The importance of imagination in poetry is present in the following quotation Finally a good sense is the body of poetic genius fancy is drapery motion its life and imagination the soul that is everywhere and in each In this line from Chapter the writer shows the role of both fancy and imagination in poetry Primary Imagination Primary imagination is the natural power of all human beings Everyone uses it not only poets It helps us to understand the world around us It is automatic and works without thinking It is an unconscious part of the mind It brings infinite things to finite and order to chaos It also functions as raw materials for the secondary imagination It is compared to a physical change like water into ice The following quote perfectly defines primary imagination The primary Imagination I hold to be the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I Am Secondary Imagination Secondary imagination is more special It is the creative power of poets and artists This imagination is used with will and purpose It changes the ideas from the primary imagination into something more powerful This power is used when a poet writes a poem or an artist creates a painting Coleridge says this imagination is like a chemical process It does not just copy but creates something new and full of feeling A poet modifies the raw ideas and objects of primary imagination Then he makes a refined and mature one due to the power of secondary imagination The author explains it in the following way It dissolves diffuses dissipates in order to recreate or where this process is rendered impossible yet still at all events it struggles to idealize and to unify Fancy is lower than imagination Coleridge says fancy is different from imagination Fancy only collects and stores old ideas It does not make anything new It is like a machine that cuts and pastes things It may be helpful in writing simple poems or stories Coleridge calls it a lower power Only imagination can touch the heart and make real poetry In conclusion Coleridge s ideas of fancy and imagination are very important in English literature He showed that imagination is the true spirit of poetry It gives life shape and beauty to simple ideas On the other hand fancy is not strong enough to do that It just arranges things without creating anything new Coleridge has divided imagination to help readers understand how poets think and create His ideas still guide students poets and critics today

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