Coleridge as Poet and Religious ThinkerIn the nineteenth century there was a definite divide between those who read Coleridge as a religious thinker and those who read him as a poet. Even now, readers and critics find it hard not to consider one aspect of his work to the exclusion of the other. Here David Jasper considers Coleridge as a poet, literary critic, theologian and philosopher, seeing him as occupying a representative place in European and English Romantic thought on poetry, religion and the role of the artist. His earliest writings are closely linked to his mature religious and critical thought, and his greatest poems, 'Kubla Khan', 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and the 'Dejection' Ode, are a necessary prelude to the prose writings of the middle period of Coleridge's life. Self-reflection upon the processes of creating poetry and art, particularly in the Biographia Literaria, is an important development in Coleridge's sense of the relation of the finite to the infinite through the inspiration of the poet. Attention to the nature of inspiration, imagination and irony in creative writing leads directly to his later discussions of man's need of a divine redeemer and the nature of divine revelation. In the later poetry, attention is given to the theme of self-reflection in which spiritual growth is part and parcel of poetic development, each balancing the other. The final part of the book considers Coleridge's later prose, linking his reflections upon poetry with an epistemology, which he learnt principally from Kant and Fichtee in a discussion of revelation and radical evil. In conclusion, Coleridge's religious position is summed up through the late, and still unpublished notebooks, and the fragmentary remains of the long-projected Opus Maximum. The last chapter links Coleridge with a more recent debate on the nature of inspiration, poetic and divine, which arises out of Austin Farrer's Bampton Lectures The Glass of Vision. |
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Page 10
... eternal regions where the owl - winged faculty of calculation dare not even soar ' . It is , indeed , a revealer , that which lifts the veil from things hidden ; and a creator , for it ' creates anew the universe ' as ' it purges from ...
... eternal regions where the owl - winged faculty of calculation dare not even soar ' . It is , indeed , a revealer , that which lifts the veil from things hidden ; and a creator , for it ' creates anew the universe ' as ' it purges from ...
Page 137
... Eternal , and on the Generations of the Heaven and the Earth , and I am unable to solve the problem of my own Dreams ! ... Well for me if these vexations of the Night increase the dread of being suffered to fall back upon the wild ...
... Eternal , and on the Generations of the Heaven and the Earth , and I am unable to solve the problem of my own Dreams ! ... Well for me if these vexations of the Night increase the dread of being suffered to fall back upon the wild ...
Page 143
... eternal and one with the Holy Will , and which Light is at the same time the Life of men . Now , as Life is here the sum or collective of all moral and spiritual acts , in suffering , doing , and being , so is Faith the source and the ...
... eternal and one with the Holy Will , and which Light is at the same time the Life of men . Now , as Life is here the sum or collective of all moral and spiritual acts , in suffering , doing , and being , so is Faith the source and the ...
Contents
THE ROMANTIC CONTEXT | 8 |
Symbol and Organic Form | 16 |
KUBLA KHAN THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT | 43 |
Copyright | |
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Coleridge as Poet and Religious Thinker: Inspiration and Revelation David Jasper Limited preview - 1985 |
Common terms and phrases
activity Aids Ancient Mariner Beautiful becomes belief Biographia Literaria Cambridge Chapter Christ Christian Coleridge Coleridge's concern Confessions continued creation creative criticism David described discussion distinction divine doctrine early English Essays established eternal evil experience expression faith Farrer final finite fragment freedom Friend further given historical human Ibid Idea Imagination important individual infinite inspiration irony John Kant knowledge language later Lectures letter light literary Literature Logic London meaning merely mind moral mystery narrative nature Notebook object opposites original Oxford particular perceived philosophical poem poet poetic poetry Polar position present principle quoted reader reading reason refers Reflection religion religious remains revelation Review Romantic Schlegel sense Spirit structure Studies suggests symbol theology Theory things Thomas thought Tradition true truth understanding unity universal vision whole Wordsworth writings wrote York