1. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Biographia Literaria
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
09/12/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C

2. Biographia Literaria
It explains the origins of the Lyrical Ballads and the different rules applied by Coleridge and Wordsworth to compose them.
It emphasizes the importance of Imagination.
22/11/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C

3. Biographia Literaria The prose can be divided into four main parts:
The two cardinal points of poetry.
Coleridge’s poetry features.
Wordsworth’s poetry features.
The ideal poet.
09/12/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C

4. The two cardinal points of poetry
The power of interest the reader by a rigorous description of nature.
The power of giving interest to ordinary things by seeing them under a new light.
22/11/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C

5. Coleridge’s poetry features
Coleridge deals with a supernatural nature.
His purpose is to convince the reader that he is describing a nature faithful to reality.
In order to do this, Coleridge suspend the disbelief of the reader through a wise use of imagination.
22/11/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C

6. Wordsworth’s poetry features
Wordsworth deals with ordinary things.
He describes them in an unusual way since his goal is to awake man’s mind towards wonders of nature.
The imagination has the rule of teaching the man to see nature without the veil of habits on his eyes.
22/11/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C

7. The ideal poet
The poet becomes he who put the “whole soul of man into activity” thanks to his imagination.
Imagination can sweetly control the soul of man; it can unify the opposites.
Both Coleridge and Wordsworth use imagination to compose their poems, but in a different way.
22/11/’09
Riccardo Biffi 5C