Biographia Literaria

Topics in Wordsworth and Coleridge’s conversation

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a)      <!--[endif]-->The powers of poetry

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.       <!--[endif]-->Exciting the sympathy of the reader by means of faithful adherence to the truth of nature.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.       <!--[endif]-->Giving the interest of novelty by means of the modifying colours of imagination.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->b)      <!--[endif]-->Writing a collection of poems of two kinds

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.       <!--[endif]-->Subject: supernatural incidents and agents.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.       <!--[endif]-->Subject: incidents  and agents from ordinary life

<!--[if !supportLists]-->c)       <!--[endif]-->Plan of the Lyric Ballads

Coleridge

Subject:  supernatural persons and characters

Aim:  transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth                                                                                                      to give them the charm of novelty

Procedure:  by the suspension of disbelief for the moment  which constitutes poetic faith      

Wordsworth

Subject:  Incidents of common life

Aim: to give them the charm of novelty

Procedure:  by directing the mind’s attention to   the loveliness and wonders of the world           

Profiles of the ideal poet

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.       <!--[endif]-->He “brings the whole soul of man into activity”

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.       <!--[endif]-->He is gifted with imagination