Fancy and Imagination by S.T Coleridge
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge was an English poet, philosopher and critic with his contemporary
William Wordsworth he founded Romantic Movement in England. Coleridge was also
a member of Lake Poets.
S.T Coleridge
belongs to poet-critic era along with Ben Johnson, John Dryden, Dr Johnson,
William Wordsworth and Matthew Arnold. ST Coleridge's autobiographical novel Biographia
literaria (1817) considered as one of the greatest work of Criticism in English
literature in which he described about fancy and imagination.
(1) The
rime of ancient
(2) Mariner
(3) Kubla Khan
(4) Biographia Literaria
Introduction
In the chapter 13 of his book biographia literaria he
described two kind of imagination primary and secondary. This book`s full name
is Biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions, it is work of
literary theory.
The
Biographia Literaria is a critical autobiography by Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
published in 1817 in two volumes. Its working title was 'Biographia Literaria'.
The formative influences on the work were Wordsworth's theory of poetry, the
view of imagination as a shaping power (for which Coleridge later coined the
word "Esemplastic").
In his book S.T Coleridge quoted
that,
`The
Imagination, I consider either as primary or secondary. The primary
Imagination, 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
Concept of fancy and imagination
before ST Coleridge
(1) Chaucer uses the word imagination as mental consideration
of actions or events not yet in existence.
(2) John Middleton murry employees the word Imagination to
create mental representation of things not presented to the senses.
(3) Theory of imagination in the chapter 4 of Biographia
literaria
(4) In chapter 13 S.T Coleridge introduced the difference
between the two kind of imagination primary and secondary.
Imagination
In his literary work St Coleridge
described Imagination as magical and synthetic power by which we can form a
mental representation that is not in existence, the extracts clearly bring out
his view on the nature and functions of Imagination and the ways in which it is
distinguished from fancy according to Coleridge Imagination has two forms
primary and secondary.
Primary Imagination
It is the power of receiving Impressions of the external
world through the senses in other words the power of perceiving the object of
sense both in their parts and as a whole it is a spontaneous act of Mind by
which human mind receives Impressions and sensations from the outside world it
reduces them to shape and resize so that the mind is able to form a clear image
of the outside world in this way a clear and coherent perception becomes
possible.
Coleridge defines primary imagination as the living power and
Prime agent of all human perceptions it is the power by which human mind
perceive the world around them.
The primary imagination is universal so it is possessed by
all.
Secondary Imagination
It is a shaping and modifying power which works on raw
material like sensations and Impressions and shapes objects of external world
and describe them with a glory and dream that never existed.
Secondary imagination may be possessed by others also but it
is the strange and unusual distinguish attribute of the artist, it is the
secondary imagination which makes artistic creation possible it is more active
and conscious. This kind of imagination requires will power and conscious
effort.
The secondary imagination is the root of all poetic creation
following is the process of secondary imagination,
(1) It
selects and orders the raw material and Re shapes it into object of beauty.
(2) It is
ensenplastic by nature.
(3)It
dissolves disputes and diffusers in order to create imagination.
Secondary type of imagination is mostly seen in the fact that
it focuses on the various faculties of the soul and like perception intellect
willpower and emotions.
Difference between Them
Primary imagination and Secondary imagination mostly do not
differ from each other, the only difference between them is one of degree the
secondary imagination is more active conscious then the primary imagination. The
primary imagination is Universal on the other hand the secondary imagination
belongs to the particular group like artist.
Fancy
Generally considered to be synonym with Wit. Fancy is
differentiated from imagination by Coleridge in his Biographia literaria. Imagination
is creative on the other hand Fancy is a common possession of men but not
creative at all.
It is a mechanical process which receives the elementary
images from primary imagination. Fancy resembles them in order to which it was
received, fancy receives no coloring or modification from the mind it is mode
of memory from the order of time and space.
The difference between fancy and
imagination
Is the key element in the theory of poetry in colleges work
biography of literary according to him fancy is not creative power at all it
only combines what it perceives.
As an example the difference between a mechanical mixture
and chemical compound in mechanical mixture a number of ingredients are brought
together they are mixed up but they do not lose their individual properties
they still exist as separate entities, on the other hand in a chemical compound
the different ingredients are combined to from something new and they lose
their individual and properties.
Conclusion
To sum up we can say that Coleridge is one of the best poet
critic he was first one to use imagination and fancy in his work Biographia
literaria. Coleridge gives idea of two types of imagination and Differentiate
between imagination and Fancy.
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