Coleridge, Imagination, and Romance: Extracts from 'Biographia Literaria'

I once wrote a paper on Coleridge's descriptions of primary and secondary imagination.  It was one of the best papers I have ever written, which I unfortunately have lost due to my own ineptness and the evolution of technology devises which have evolved over time.  But I'm digressing.  The following passage, from Coleridge's  "Extracts from Biographia Literaria" contains insights into the world of romance and I'd like to share it with the class.  The section that I think is the most applicable to romance reads as follows:

"The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity, with the subordination of its faculties to each other, according to their relative worth and dignity.  He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and (as it were) fuses, each into each, by that synthetic and magical power to which we have exclusively appropriated the name of imagination.  This power, first put in action by the will and understanding, and retained under their irremissive, though gentle and unnoticed, control (laxis effertur habenis) reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities; of sameness, with difference; of the general, with the concrete; the idea, with the image; the individual, with the representative; the sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar objects; a more than usual state of emotion, with more than usual order; judgement ever awake and steady self-possession, with enthusiasm and feeling profound and vehement; and while it blends and harmonizes the natural and the artificial, still subordinates art to nature; the manner to the matter; and our admiration of the poet to our sympathy with the poetry.  'Doubtless', as Sir John Davies observes of the soul (and his words may with slight alteration be applied, and even more appropriately, to the poetic Imagination),

Doubtless this could not be, but that she turns
Bodies to spirit by sublimation strange,
As fire converts to fire the things it burns,
As we our food into our nature change.

From their gross matter she abstracts their forms,
And draws a kind of quintessence from things;
Which to her proper nature she transforms
To bear them light on her celestial wings.

Thus does she, when from individual states
She doth abstract the universal kinds;
Which then re-clothed in divers names and fates
Steal access through our senses to our minds.

Finally, Good Sense is the body of poetic genius, Fancy its Drapery, Motion its Life, and Imagination the Soul that is everywhere, and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent whole" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Poetry and Prose 198-197).

Dr. Sexson has told us numerous time that it would take us one thousand pages to unpack Coleridge's Kubla Khan, and I think the same holds true for the above passage.  However, I do think we can see by reading this material the power of imagination, how it is constructed, and that it breathes through all of the stories that we have read in this class.  

Obsession

Obsession:  1.) Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety. 2.) A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.

Write about something I became obsessed with.

Hm.  The definition of obsession suggests an imbalance of one's own character; not being content with the nature of things.  I suppose I've been obsessed with projects I've created, my mind always working on them, day and night, but I don't feel that these states of being are "unreasonable" or "unwanted."  I've been obsessed with achieving a particular goal, but again, these are reasonable wanted things I've strived to attain.  Hm.  I think the closest I've ever come to experiencing obsession would have to be intertwined with many of the emotions I've felt while being in love.  I've never felt obsession fully for a long period of time within this context, but have felt it flow through me and have been glad it is a passing emotion. A moment of insecurity.  I certainly would not want to be someone's obsession.  The times I've felt it it has felt very constricting.  Obsessing on something or someone is like trying to hold onto a stream of water.

In romance, when obsession is at play, there is usually pain in the forecast; both for the person who is obsessed and the person they are obsessing over.

Displaced Fairytale

Man from Manhattan Loses Potato Crop

It was reported that a young potato farmer from Manhattan, in an attempt to raise the price of potatoes, reported to all the neighboring farmers that there was to be an early frost.  All the neighboring farmers were very grateful for the news and rushed out to cover their fields.  The next day, when the sun rose high in the sky, their potatoes cooked under the heat from the black tarps they had laid down to protect their crops from the frost.  When the farmers all arrived at the young man’s house, he swung open the door and said, “I fooled you.  I fooled you.”  The farmers all thought this was a very bad joke, indeed.  They warned the young man not to pronounce an early frost again, unless one was really coming.  The next week, the young man announced to all his neighbors there was to be an early frost, and promised he was telling the truth this time.  Since Manhattan is a small tight knight community, all the farmers believed him and covered their potato fields once again.  The next day, when the sun rose high in the sky, they went back over to the young farmer’s house and the boy only laughed at them.  A couple days later, the Farmer’s Almanac, which all the older potato farmers swore by, predicted the first major frost of the season; all the farmers got together and helped each other cover their fields with tarps to protect their crops from the frost.  The young man didn’t have a Farmer’s Almanac, and he called to the other farmers to ask why they were covering their fields when he hadn’t reported an early frost.  All the farmers ignored him.  The frost came on quick and hard the next morning. All the young farmer could do was watch the cold frost drop on his fields.  He was the only potato farmer in Manhattan this year to lose his entire crop to the frost.

Cupid in Daphnis and Chloe

One of my favorite parts of the story Daphnis and Chloe was how Cupid was described because it encompassed the characteristics of love.  When Philetas is trying to capture Cupid in his garden for "just one kiss" Cupid "Laughed very loudly in response and let out a sound sweeter than any swallow's or any nightingale's or any swan's. . . . [and says] I'm difficult to hunt, and swifter than hawks or doves or any bird faster than them.  I am not a boy even though I seem to be one, but am older than Cronus and all time itself" (157).  In this section of the story we see that Cupid's very characteristics are the characteristics of love itself.  I like this union between an entity (Cupid) and an abstract emotion.

Shallow Conquest vs. Agape Love

The question: What is so important about keeping your virginity?

Within the context of romance, the importance of keeping one's virginity evolves over time and depends on the integrity and depth of the character's love.  In the most rudimentary sense, a woman's virginity is her only power, meaning, it is what her pursuer wants the most from her.  Hence, when she surrenders it, she has nothing left to barter with in the relationship.  However, in Daphnis and Chloe, having power over one another was of no interest to them.  Perhaps that's one of the reasons this story prevails through time; their love was an agape love which was based on caring for each other rather than conquering each other.  Yet, the story was still full of provocative sexual tension. 

In An Ephesian Tale, Habrocomes and Anthia also shared a love that transcended conquest and power over one another.  On the eve of their wedding in their first kiss, "the thoughts that were in the mind of each they transmitted through their lips from the soul of one to the soul of the other" (13). They were more concerned about maintaining their loyalty to one another, in this life, and the next.  Anthia proclaims, "Let us die, Habrocomes; we shall possess one another after death and none shall trouble us" (18). The trials they faced in the story seem to exemplify their profound devotion to each other and revealed the integrity of their relationship.  

In The Acts of Paul and Thecla, Thecla's love was not for a man but for God.  Although she maintained her virginity, it was not about maintaining her power, it was about surrendering he entire being to God.  She proclaims her love when she states, "I am a handmaid of the living God. . . . For he alone is the goal of salvation and the foundation of immortal life" (62). Once again we see a love that goes beyond the shallow conquests of current day romance that is often based on power as opposed to agape love.  

The Dream Fields

When I was six years old I remember I would lay down in the tall grass for hours and float in and out of reality. The grass framed the blue sky, which was the stage the clouds would use to act out scenes which were interwoven with the stories they evoked in my imagination. Time let loose its hold allowing all my senses to be fully present in a state of union with creation.  At times, I would transcend the physical density of the grass, ants, stones, and soil that supported me and everything would soften, and I would walk through it, into another time and place.  It was sublime and peaceful.  Yet, sometimes an inkling would start to grow inside me, as if feeling I had wondered too deep into a cave, taken too many turns, and wouldn't be able to find my way back.  As this feeling grew inside me, the silhouettes of my surroundings began to reappear, their outlines hardening, like bars of a prison, and I returned to field.

Sometimes I try to return to this special place I know exists, but it's much harder now, as time has tightened it's grip over the years.  I know that when I grow old, and my responsibilities lessen, it will be easier to make this journey.  But I wonder if fearing I've gone too far and wont be able to return to this earth will once again bring me back.