Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Mimesis, or imitation, as he referred to it, was a crucial concept for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's theory of the imagination. Coleridge begins his thoughts on imitation and poetry from Plato, Aristotle, and Philip Sidney, adopting their concept of imitation of nature instead of other writers. His significant departure from the earlier thinkers lies in his arguing that art does not reveal a unity of essence through its ability to achieve sameness with nature. Coleridge claims:
he composition of a poem is among the imitative arts; and that imitation, as opposed to copying, consists either in the interfusion of the SAME throughout the radically DIFFERENT, or the different throughout a base radically the same.Here, Coleridge opposes imitation to copying, the latter referring to William Wordsworth's notion that poetry should duplicate nature by capturing actual speech. Coleridge instead argues that the unity of essence is revealed precisely through different materialities and media. Imitation, therefore, reveals the sameness of processes in nature.
Read more about this topic: Mimetic
Famous quotes containing the words samuel taylor coleridge, taylor coleridge, taylor and/or coleridge:
“And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Iambics march from short to long;—
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapaests throng;”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“And though thou notest from thy safe recess
Old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air
Love them for what they are; nor love them less,
Because to thee they are not what they were.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)