Wordsworth and Coleridge

Thinking activity : Wordsworth and Coleridge

Hello Readers,

William Wordsworth : 

Born: 7 April 1770, Cockermouth, United Kingdom

Died: 23 April 1850, Rydal Mount, United Kingdom

Poems: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, The Prelude, Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, more

Education: Hawkshead Grammar School, University of Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge

William Wordsworth was an English poet, a key figure of Romanticism, and the author of the most famous poem ever written about daffodils. Born in 1770, Wordsworth and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge invented a new style of poetry in which nature and the diction of the common man trumped formal, stylized language. Their seminal 1798 poetry collection, Lyrical Ballads, helped to launch the Romantic era of English literature, in which writers sought to unite the tranquility of nature and the inner emotional world of men. Even in the nineteenth century, Wordsworth felt that the world was "too much with us"—too fast-paced, too noisy, too full of mindless entertainment. He wanted to create poetry that reunited readers with true emotions and feelings. When he wrote about a field of daffodils, he didn't want you just to think about it—he wanted you to feel those flowers, to feel the breeze against your skin and the sense of peace this sight brought to your soul.

Wordsworth was the quintessential figure of Romanticism. He lived in England's scenic Lake District instead of urban London. He wrote poems in his head as he wandered through the hills and moors. He had a few different families during his adult life, some of which were unconventional—a partner and illegitimate daughter in France during the French Revolution, an unorthodox but literary household containing his sister Dorothy and Coleridge, and eventually a wife and five kids. By the time he died in 1850, Wordsworth was so famous that tourists flocked to the Lake District village of Grasmere just to peer in his windows. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that Wordsworth did "more for the sanity of this generation than any other writer."¹ The world is with us far more now than it was in the nineteenth century. Maybe your soul—and your sanity—could use a little Words. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

Born: 21 October 1772, Ottery Saint Mary, United Kingdom

Died: 25 July 1834, Highgate, London, United Kingdom

Poems: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision ; The Pains of Sleep, more

Education: Christ's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Jesus College, University of Cambridge. 

After spending a year in Germany with the Wordsworths, Coleridge returned to England and settled in the Lake District. For the next twelve years Coleridge had a miserable life. The climate made his many ailments worse. For pain relief he took laudanum, a type of opium drug, and soon became an addict. His marriage was failing, especially once Coleridge fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, Wordsworth's sister-in-law. Poor health and emotional stress affected his writing. However, in 1802, he did publish the last and most moving of his major poems, "Dejection: An Ode." After a two-year stay in Malta (a group of islands in the Mediterranean), he separated from his wife in 1806. The only bright point in his life was his friendship with the Wordsworths, but by 1810, after his return to the Lake District, their friendship had lessened. Coleridge then moved to London.

Meanwhile, Coleridge's poetry and his brilliant conversation had earned him public recognition, and between 1808 and 1819 he 

gave several series of lectures, mainly on William Shakespeare and other literary topics. His only dramatic work, Osorio, written in 1797, was performed in 1813 under the title Remorse. "Christabel" and "Kubla Khan" were published in 1816.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Contrast to William Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often discussed in association with his peer, William Wordsworth. This is due in part to their friendship and joint ventures on works such as Lyrical Ballads. Although he is often “paired” with his counterpart Wordsworth, there are several differences in Coleridge’s poetic style and philosophical views. Coleridge’s poetry differs from that of Wordsworth, and his association with Wordsworth overshadows Coleridge’s individual accomplishments as a Romantic poet. In addition, Coleridge’s poetry complicates experiences that Wordsworth views as very simple and very commonplace. Samuel Taylor Coleridge has a poetic diction unlike that of William Wordsworth, he relies more heavily on imagination for poetic inspiration, and he also incorporates religion into his poetry differently. Coleridge’s different views, combined with his opium addiction, led to an eventual breach in his friendship with Wordsworth – a friendship that had begun in 1797.

Wordsworth and Coleridge vision of nature:

This is a great question to think about, as both of these poems are famous for their Romantic poetry and their treatment of nature through their art. This of course most famously resulted in their joint book of poetry entitled which is still studied on Literature courses today. The key ways in which their views on nature differed are expressed in their respective poems in this volume. Coleridge sought to show the supernatural in nature as being something that was wholly natural, and Wordsworth sought to show the natural as something that was strangely supernatural. This is an important distinction to keep hold of.

If we look at two poems from these poets we can see how this operates. In "We Are Seven," by Wordsworth, the speaker accosts a young girl in the countryside who insists that even though all of her brothers and sisters have died, "we" are still seven in number. She does not see death as something that separates her from her dead siblings. Note the frustrated voice of the speaker:

"But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!"
'Twas throwing words away; for still
The little Maid would have her will,
And said, "Nay, we are seven!"

There is something supernatural in what at first glance seems to be a very natural sight. In the same way, consider a poem such as and note how Coleridge explores nature in a distinctly supernatural way through references to the Polar spirit and the fate of the vessel. This makes us view nature differently and to see it as something that is at its core supernatural. The two poets therefore differ distinctly in how they try to present nature in their poetry.

Thank you....