Coleridge and Biographia Literaria

In 1817, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Rime of the Ancient Mariner) wrote Biographia Literaria, now considered a classic of English criticism, in which he provided a roughly autobiographical mental journey wedding philosophy and literature.

Coleridge includes a wandering account of his thoughts on criticism, composition, poetry vs. prose, poetry and the psychology of art, and an in-depth assessment of Wordsworth’s work. He uses a lot of foreign phrases and lengthy quotes, so I was glad to have an annotated version. In chapter XIV we find his famous argument for "suspension of disbelief."

T. S. Eliot, another philosophy-of-writing author who loved to quote poetry in other languages, considered Coleridge a supreme literary critic. The most interesting part of the book for me was Coleridge's advice to young writers not to seek publication and also his assertion that a writer should have a separate occupation and write on the side so as to have "real world" interactions and thoughts to express. Coleridge also expressed a concern that writers sometimes read to write about what they've read rather than reading to think. Reading to get "material" rather than reading to process ideas keeps writers from going deep.

That's also true for preachers, he says. His observations reminded me of a conference I attended taught by a man with a wonderful mind, Eugene Peterson. Halfway through he encouraged the pastors among us to put away their "I can use that on Sunday" mentality and really listen to the content. Suddenly, we heard the sound of many notebooks snapping shut.