The Creative Faculty of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Poets’ work is to write poems. They express their own feelings through poems and, at the same time, provide enjoyment to the people with their poems. Besides entertaining, poets also teach people ‘to think’, and on many occasions, they play the role of a teacher too. However, most of the poets do not talk a lot about poems or writing poems. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are an exception in this respect. Together they started the ‘Romantic Movement’ in English literature. So, it is expected that they would express their own thoughts and ideologies about poets and poems. Despite having similarities in their opinions about the Romantic Movement, there are many dissimilarities too. Though Wordsworth is credited as the central figure of the Romantic Movement, Coleridge’s contribution is no less. The main spirit of the Romantic Movement was to take the poem to nature and people.

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So naturally, the matter of nature would come first when we will discuss the ‘Creative Faculty of a Poet’. After reading Coleridge’s ‘Dejection: An Ode’ poem, readers may feel that the poet does not deny the importance of nature that much; rather wind and nature helped him to imagine. The poet expressed his imagination upon seeing windy air, wind and sky. So, it can be said that nature motivated and helped him to imagine. However, it is also true that the poet is in distress and so, the beauty of nature cannot inspire him totally to write a poem. Nature is beautiful, but as there is frustration and distress in his mind, the poet cannot enjoy that nature to the fullest.

This frustration and beauty have taken then life vigor out of the poet. When the poet was young, he had physical strength as well as mental happiness. However, now as he is living in distress, there is more frustration than happiness in him.

Coleridge reveals his own condition and says he cannot write a poem. It means he can no longer write a good new poem and cannot even complete the old ones. Because of this, there grew a poetic paralysis in him, and he is living with poetic paralysis. Nothing can be more saddening than this for a poet. If we look into the life of the poet, we could see that the poet’s mind, at that time, was stricken with frustration because he was not successful in his career. He had earned some fame as a poet, but he was not that famous at the time. Secondly, he was in a conflict with his close friend Wordsworth. Thirdly, he had never been successful in love and affection in his life. Above all, his time was not going well, and poverty was there as his constant companion as usual. Because of all these, there grew a kind of feeling of paralysis in him.

The basic theory of Wordsworth is that nature has an immense contribution to the flourishing of poetic feeling, and nature is very close to the poetic self. According to Coleridge, soul and individual creativity are much more important. Individual creativity and poetic intuition are even more important than nature. Poet’s poem could become more beautiful with individual creativity and enough practice. Coleridge’s opinion is exactly the opposite of Wordsworth’s from this point of view as well.

The creative faculty of a poet introduces him or her with a new horizon. A poet is a human being, just like another human being. But, with his creativity, he could present ordinary, but beautiful things to the people extraordinarily. Imaginary power is the main weapon for a poet. They can see something that others cannot.

With the help of imagination, a poet can rise above the thoughts of general people. He or she can go beyond human limitations and can make the poems invaluable to the people with his or her eternal touch. So, to Wordsworth, a poet is an important person to society and his or her creative faculty could only bring good to society.

To understand the ‘Dejection: An Ode’ poem, one must have very good knowledge about the background of Coleridge’s life. He could not become that successful in life and had to struggle against poverty until his death. Today, we know Coleridge as one of the immortal poets of English literature. However, he was not treated as an important person by many people during his lifetime. So, he could never enjoy the touch of success in his career, and likewise, fame or popularity was never bestowed in his fate. Still, after going through the ‘Dejection: An Ode’ poem, we can realize that Coleridge is one of the most important and biggest personalities in English literature.