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Bloom's Classic Critical Views
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Each Volume, Covering Three To Six Poems, Includes: - User's guide- Editor's note and introduction by Harold Bloom- A comprehensive biography of the poet- Detailed thematic analysis of each poem- Extracts from major critical essays that discuss important aspects of each poem- A complete bibliography of the writer's poetic works- A list of critical works about the poet and his works- An index of themes and ideas in the author's work
120 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
Harold Bloom
1,708 books2,094 followersHarold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.
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July 20, 2010
A passage I am working to understand:
"Colderidge's imaginative severity, his heightened sense of poetic limites, gives us a stricter argument and a more confined image. The movement breaks at only one pole, man's because the movement can emanate out only from man. For: "...we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does Nature live"
Out of the soul alone eddies the mysterious element-of elements, self-creating joy, to borrow John Clare's phrase. Joy, the Imagination itself, the great I Am, the word of primal creation, issues forth at light, a glory, a fair, luminous cloud, an ultimate voice which is the strong music of the soul. The light, glory, and luminous cloud are what the child Wordsworth saw; the potent music is what he heard" (23).
This passage intrigues me because I have been teaching Coleridge and Wordsworth's work along with the work of other Romantic poets this semster, and we have encountered these terms often: the imagination, joy, glory, light, music, as well as this concept of the powers beyond us (the great I Am, for instance). I think at least one student should address this connection to or different representations of the "great I am" in two or more works from these poets: perhaps Coleridge's "Intimations" and Wordsworth's "Lucy Gray" or some other combination. The investigative thesis/research question might be something like what follows:
Does the "great I Am" of the romantic poets refer to God (a spiritual or religious figure, creator) or to something else, such as the "secondary imagination" or the general creative spirit emanating from and shared by ordinary people? In other words, does the "Great I Am" (from Coleridge's point of view) inspire poetry or is it created by the mind and captured in poetry?
"Colderidge's imaginative severity, his heightened sense of poetic limites, gives us a stricter argument and a more confined image. The movement breaks at only one pole, man's because the movement can emanate out only from man. For: "...we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does Nature live"
Out of the soul alone eddies the mysterious element-of elements, self-creating joy, to borrow John Clare's phrase. Joy, the Imagination itself, the great I Am, the word of primal creation, issues forth at light, a glory, a fair, luminous cloud, an ultimate voice which is the strong music of the soul. The light, glory, and luminous cloud are what the child Wordsworth saw; the potent music is what he heard" (23).
This passage intrigues me because I have been teaching Coleridge and Wordsworth's work along with the work of other Romantic poets this semster, and we have encountered these terms often: the imagination, joy, glory, light, music, as well as this concept of the powers beyond us (the great I Am, for instance). I think at least one student should address this connection to or different representations of the "great I am" in two or more works from these poets: perhaps Coleridge's "Intimations" and Wordsworth's "Lucy Gray" or some other combination. The investigative thesis/research question might be something like what follows:
Does the "great I Am" of the romantic poets refer to God (a spiritual or religious figure, creator) or to something else, such as the "secondary imagination" or the general creative spirit emanating from and shared by ordinary people? In other words, does the "Great I Am" (from Coleridge's point of view) inspire poetry or is it created by the mind and captured in poetry?
Displaying 1 of 1 review