Towards a romantic conception of nature: Coleridge's poetry up to 1803 : a study in the history of ideas

223 Pages·1984·10.491 MB·English

by  jr. Henderik Roelof Rookmaaker

COLERIDGE'S POETRY UP TO 1803
UTRECHT PUBLICATIONS IN
GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
Utrechtse Publikaties voor Algemene Literatuurwetenschap
(UPAL)
Series Editors:
Keith Busby
C. de Deugd
J.J. Oversteegen
Institute of General and Comparative Literature
Utrecht, The Netherlands
The volumes to be included in the series will fall into three main groups:
a) studies which contribute to the understanding of the problems of literary
theory, past and present;
b) works which can be said to fill existing lacunae in the fields of general and
comparative literature, including text editions;
c) works which reflect the research interests of the department itself. This
includes comparative literature from the Middle Ages to the present, as well
as particular aspects of and approaches to the theory of literature.
Volume 20
H.R. Rookmaaker Jr.
Towards a Romantic Conception of Nature:
Coleridge's Poetry up to 1803.
H.R. Rookmaaker Jr.
TOWARDS A
ROMANTIC CONCEPTION OF NATURE:
COLERIDGE'S POETRY UP TO 1803
A Study in the History of Ideas
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1984
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Rookmaaker Jr., H.R.
Towards a romantic conception of nature.
(Utrecht publications in general and comparative literature, ISSN 0167-8175; v. 20)
Bibliography.
Includes indexes.
1. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834--Criticism and interpretation. 2. Nature in liter­
ature. 3. Philosophy of nature. 4. Romanticism-England.
I. Title. II. Series.
PR4487.N3R66 1984 821'.7 84-24633
ISBN 90-272-2205-3 (hb.)
ISBN 90-272-2215-0 (pb.)
© Copyright 1984 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
To the memory of my father
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My warmest thanks are due to Prof. Dr.  de Deugd for his unceasing
support and encouragement as well as for his useful suggestions and tactful
criticism. I am also indebted to Dr. S. Varey of the University of Utrecht
for his careful reading of the manuscript, and to Prof. Dr. A. Fry of the Free
University of Amsterdam for his suggestions. I am grateful to Mark de Klijn
for his advice and to librarians and staff of the Provinciale Bibliotheek of
Leeuwarden for their cooperation. This study would never have been com­
pleted without the encouragement of my relatives and friends, and of my
colleagues of the Christelijk Gymnasium of Leeuwarden who have managed
to keep up their interest in the progress of my work. I must record a further
debt of gratitude to my publishers, Mr and Mrs Benjamins, and their staff
for their hospitality while I was working on one of their word processors.
Most special thanks are due to my wife who had to put up not only with my
almost continual absence from the living room, but also with my frequent
absent-mindedness. I dedicate this study to the memory of my father whose
ideas and love of learning have always been a source of inspiration to me.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
I. The Eighteenth Century Tradition of Nature Poetry 13
II. The Traditional Character of Coleridge's Early Poetry 25
III. The 1796 Poems and their Philosophical Background 33
IV. Coleridge and Wordsworth in 1797; Their Interest in Evil and
Alienation 55
V. Alienation Reconsidered: 'The Ancient Mariner' 65
VI. 'Frost at Midnight' : A Companion Piece to 'The Ancient Mariner' 95
VII. A Brief Survey of Continental Ideas on Man and Nature 103
VIII. A Movement Away From Empiricism, Towards the 'one Life'
Idea: 1799-1803 117
IX. The 'one Life' and Alienation: 'Dejection: an Ode' 133
X. 'Kubla Khan' and its Ideational Resemblance to 'Dejection: an
Ode' 147
XI. Reality and Dream: Romantic Irony in 'The Picture' 153
Conclusion 169
Notes 173
Bibliography 203
Index 209
Index of Coleridge's works 213

INTRODUCTION
During the second half of the eighteenth century a gradual but funda­
mental change of outlook occurred in many European countries, signalling
the advent of romanticism. Although the roots of most of the characteristic,
romantic attitudes and ideas can be found in the work of earlier writers,
M.H. Abrams is justified in asserting that the romantic writers 'in reinterpret­
ing their cultural inheritance, developed new modes of organizing experi­
ence, new ways of seeing the outer world, and a new set of relations of the
individual to himself, to nature, to history, and to his fellow-men'.1
It has indeed been argued that romanticism induced, or reflected, such
a profound change in man's conception of the very essentials of his existence
that it marks the inauguration of the modern age.2 One of the main areas of
change is that of man's relation and attitude to the external world of nature.
It is with this aspect of romanticism as it appears from Coleridge's writings
up to 1803 that this study is concerned.
For the sake of historical perspective it may be helpful to attempt some
generalizations about the character of this change in man's conception of
nature (the word "nature" in this study is generally employed to refer to that
aspect of the external world which is not originally made by man). It is
inevitable that such generalizations entail a measure of simplification.
The increasing interest in nature apparent in eighteenth century poetry
and philosophy in England, coincides with the decline of Christianity as a
commonly accepted creed on whose principles human life and society could
be patterned, partly because, as B.Willey states, 'the light sprung by faith
had become so dimmed by controversy that Nature now seemed to supply
the true divine sunshine'.3 Thus nature was endowed with many qualities
which in traditional Christianity are associated with the supernatural. Nature
was increasingly looked upon as the basis and orientation of human exis­
tence, as providing moral tenets and happiness.
For various reasons, this proved too heavy a weight for external reality
to carry, as also appears from the fact that in romantic thought the emphasis
gradually shifts from nature to man; the eighteenth century reverence of