Question

Critically analyse S.T. Coleridge as a critic
in the light of his critical essay.
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Answer 1

Answer:

The genius of Samuel Taylor Coleridge extended over many domains. In poetry he is best known for compositions such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Frost at Midnight, Christabel, and Kubla Khan, as well as Lyrical Ballads (1798), which he co-authored with Wordsworth. He also wrote on educational, social, political, and religious matters in his Lectures on Politics and Religion (1795), Lay Sermons (1816), and On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829). Much of his thinking on philosophical issues is contained in his Logic. His literary criticism includes detailed studies of Shakespeare and Milton, and a highly influential text, Biographia Literaria (1817). The Biographia is an eclectic work, combining intellectual autobiography, philosophy, and literary theory; some critics have praised the insight and originality of this work, viewing Coleridge as the first English critic to build literary criticism on a philosophical foundation, which he derived from German idealist thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, and German Romantics such as Schiller, the Schlegels, and Schelling. Other critics have viewed Coleridge’s efforts as a philosopher as haphazard and irrelevant to his essential literary-critical insights.