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Determining Imagination
By Tiffaney Chilton
Imagination is the function which combines the themes that appear in romantic literature.
Of these themes there is the consideration of emotions and how they are found in nature, as well
as the remembered feelings that inspire the spirit long after the image is experienced. William
Wordsworth considered this emotional consideration to be directed by the combination of
imagination and memory. By placing the influences of emotion within the connection between
imagination and memory, Wordsworths opinion of the use of imagination comes across slightly
differently than his colleague, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge takes the function of this
consideration of the imagination and separates it into two aspects. The first he determines to be
the primary function of imagination, the living power and prime agent of human perception
which would relate the poet with the images and connect his emotions to them as considered by
Wordsworth. The second comes to be termed as fancy which he considers to be an echo of the
former, coexisting with the conscious will only differing in degree, and in the mode of
operation (Coleridge 477) so that thought of placing the poet within the remembered scene
would be achieved through this function of imagination, a similar but slightly different and more
mediated than the former. The differences in this distinction allows for the consideration of truth
and beauty which evolve as the consideration of the second generation of poets builds upon the
ideas of their predecessors. These ideas are especially poignant in the work of John Keats.
Through differences in definition, similar ideologies regarding the definition of imagination and
its use in poetry allows the second generation to transform the underlying themes connected with
the use of imagination without deviating from the methodology that defines the Romantics and
explore this connection between poets that imagination creates.

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This arrangement between the emotional interaction with nature and the remembrance of
these feelings combines memory with imagination. As scholar Margery Saden states, instead of
the foe of reason, [the] imagination is presented as the superlative form of that mental power
(350). Poetic creativity is elevated as an indicator of intellectual prowess. This quality set the
poet apart from society even as his ability connects him with the human condition. He is placed
in an elevated position and simultaneous isolated from the rest of society.
William Wordsworth demonstrates how the perceptive mind of the poet sets them apart
from the rest of society in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. This is managed through the way that
they use imagination. This is an important characteristic of Romantic poetry as the way that they
have changed how imagination is used in poetry. Imagination is paired with the influxes of
feeling [to be] modified and directed by our thoughts, which are indeed the representatives of all
our past feelings (Wordsworth 225). Author Paula Johanson discusses the quality of how these
emotions come from the poets perception so that merely being afoot in the natural world is
enough to inspire the poet (133). Also, from this perception comes from the acknowledgement
of the beauty of the universe (Wordsworth 270) and the connection the poet makes within their
experiences. The connection is built from the poets unique perception and the emotional
response invoked within the poet.
Wordsworth demonstrates in his poetry how he connects to these emotional responses
with his experiences. He speaks of how the emotions the experiences inspire affect him:
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused
Whose dwelling is the light of the setting suns
And the round ocean and the living air,

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And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.(ln. 93-102)
In this passage from Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey Wordsworth revisits a
moment from his youth connects with his imagination and shows an emotional connection to the
environment. By using his imagination to recapture the emotions of that time, he is able to
combine these and comes from that to reach the hope he has to share his experience with his
sister. Through the emotional response he remembers, he is able to envision the connection she
would feel in the same environment. As such, Wordsworth sees these former pleasures in the
shooting lights of thy wild eyes (ln. 123 pg. 222) transposing his emotional connection onto her
image through the combination of memory and imagination. The emotional connection to nature
and to sharing this connection with someone close to him demonstrates how the Romantic poets
perceived the interaction the poet has with the world around them.
Through the use of memory, the poet is able to relive these experiences in nature. The
ideal environment to experience would be one that is considered sublime. A sublime experience
comes from the connection within the individual, the poet and the world around them. Kathleen
Wheeler states that when the poem invokes the use of, nature or the human to elicit the sublime,
the aesthetic experience inevitably involves the realization, either consciously or unconsciously,
that the vehicle (nature or the human) is a metaphor for the reading, perceiving, imagining
human mind (15). As such, there is both an emotional response in the poet as well as a physical
one. The feelings that the sublime experiences invoke remain with the poet after it is over
because the feelings linger in memory. These feelings remain due to the heightened sense
perception that the sublime environment invokes within the individual. As such even a familiar

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setting becomes sublime without light, because removing visual reassurance heightens the other
senses. The sublime experiences in nature that the Romantic poets sought were those that
connected to them and through memory with imagination they can revisit the images.
The poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud speaks of the reproduced imagery of a field of
daffodils beside a lake. The cheerful sight of flowers fluttering and dancing in the breeze
(Wordsworth ln. 6 pg. 247) remained with the narrator as the poet describes [the] moments
feelings in detail and acutely so as to help the reader have a similar image in his or her own
inward eye (Johanson 133). The poem serves as a mirror for the poem, reflecting both the
image and the emotions that are associated with the image. The poetic description of this
moment in time reveals how the poet associates the memory of an image with an emotional
response. The academic, Johnathan Wordsworth speaks of this perception of imagination and
how the romantics celebrate the transforming power of imagination which can make a paradise
from everyday life (137). Through this quality of imagination, these experiences demonstrate
how the poet continues to relive his experiences in nature. Then, by using imagination the poet
combines their memory and emotions to recreate the images through verse.
Wordsworth considered good poetry to be the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings (225) remembered after a period of contemplation. By reflecting on these powerful
emotions, the verses echo with the emotions they pull from the imagery of the natural world. The
emotions are powerful because of the connections that the poet makes with the images. The field
of flowers in I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud incites a powerfully joyful emotional response, the
jocundity buoying the poet in times of vacant or pensive mood (Wordsworth ln. 20 pg. 247).
This is apparent through the theme that nature is a tool of reinvigoration amongst a world
moving towards urban expansion. Through imagination there is no object standing between the

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poet and the image of things (Wordsworth 270), therefore the memories of nature are always
accessible to the poet regardless of distance or time.
The communication of these experiences is very accessible to the reader. Even in a
repetitive and recognizable poetic form, there is a pattern of oral poetry rather than the literary
poetry (Johanson 133) found in the works of the neoclassicists or in Shakespeare. Combined
with the conversational tone employed by the poets, the lyrical quality of the verses illustrates
the imagery through everyday language. This feature of the Romantics language keeps the
emotional responses within the readers grasp so that the experience is easily interpreted. One of
the forms utilized by the romantic poets is called blank verse. This form allows the poet to share
a complete thought, a whole image, before moving on to the next. It is not restricted by rhyme
and the lyrical quality of the meter allows for the emotions to come across more organically than
through other types of poetic structure.
This conversational tone can be seen in the verse paragraphs found in Samuel Taylor
Coleridges Frost at Midnight. The separation of the stanzas demonstrates the shift in ideas as
the narrator moves from one thought to the next so that each reveals a different image. In Frost
at Midnight, the break between the first and second stanzas of the poem denotes the temporal
shift the narrator makes from present contemplations as he moves to thinking of the past. This
shift demonstrates a similar combination of memory and imagery as was seen in Wordsworths
poetry. When the narrative moves back into the present, the poet-narrator also moves to address
his son who shalt wander like a breeze by lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags of ancient
mountain, and beneath the clouds (Coleridge ln. 54-56 pg. 465). By directing these thoughts
onto the child, he loses the indirectness of the memory and combines the past and present as a
continuation of the first and second stanzas. Another quality that is apparent is through these

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hopes, he also shares a similar mindset with Wordsworth, who in Tintern Abbey hoped to share
his experiences in nature with his sister. Coleridge is using the same function of imagination to
picture his son having these experiences in his childhood while the poetic-I narrator was unable
to have the similar experience in nature until later in his life.
As Wordsworths partner for Lyrical Ballads, Coleridge shares a lot of similar ideas.
These can be seen in the shared themes and images as demonstrated through Frost at Midnight
and also through his autobiographical work of prose Biographia Literaria. Through this he
prepared a version of his own preface to his sections of Lyrical Ballads. In this he shares the
two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful
adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying
colors of imagination (Coleridge 478). The colors of imagination is the separation of
imagination into two functions, the first, the primary imagination is the soul that is everywhere,
and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent whole while the other function,
fancy is its drapery, motion its life (Coleridge 483) so that imagination is the quality of mind
where poetic creativity stems from.
The emotional experiences shared in Tintern Abbey and Frost at Midnight comes
from the shared spirit of imagination and the process which demonstrates the sharing of those
experiences with others. Coleridge elevates the function of imagination over fancy due to the
universal quality that he associates with imagination. Imagination is a living power and prime
agent of all human perception (Coleridge 477) while fancy is no other than a mode of memory
emancipated from the order of time and space; and blended with, and modified by the empirical
phenomenon of the will which we express by the word choice (Coleridge 478). This makes
fancy secondary in all terms of the word, so that it is not only the second of definitions but it is

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also secondary in degree. This is seen through the way that fancy is used and how it operates
within poetry. Fancy is the frippery, the isolated components which constitute the process of
recreation while imagination invokes the feelings and emotions and ties them to the objects. It is
the force which connects the emotions and experiences and how the combination of memory and
imagination resonates within the poet and comes forth through the verses of poetry.
This power of recreation and the sharing of emotional experiences are employed by
Coleridge in This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison. The excitement of the poet is infused in the
description of the sublimity of the natural environment, biographer Stephen Gill notes that
Coleridge was fascinated by everything (156) while he was experiencing the wonders of
nature. This fascination is apparent in the ways that the poet narrator uses imagination to connect
his memory of his surroundings to envision the experiences and emotional connections to the
image that his friend is having in the same environment. The joy and happiness that he bestows
upon the world is contagious as the description moves alongside the journey his friends have
undergone while through the employ of the imaginative spirit, the narrator shares the experience.
He takes the audience alongside his friends journey, and uses imagination to predict the
responses to the sublime sights of the area while the narrator remains behind due to a physical
ailment. He speaks of how a delight comes sudden on [his] heart and [he] is glad as [he himself]
were there (Coleridge ln. 45 pg. 429). This feeling of delight that the perception of the image
and his friends experience inspires within the narrator demonstrates how the narrator is sharing
in the idea of a pervasive imagination that Coleridge identifies. This power soothes both
individuals through the shared experience in nature and buoys the poem through the hopeful tone
that is inspired.

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If fancy is the mode through which imagination and memory is mediated then dreams are
a representation of how fancy and imagination can be combined. This is apparent in the
preoccupation with dreams and eventually the approach that is made in the second generation in
acquiring the dream-like awareness that comes between sleep and being consciously awake.
Coleridges Kubla Khan is an example of how the images in a dream retold through the
imaginative connection within the poet explores the model of poetic creativity Coleridge sets
forth in Biographia Literaria. This tone of the poem however, is heavily criticized due to the
references to Miltons Paradise Lost that appear within the poem.
The pervasive power of imagination is connected by Coleridge to the state of dreaming as
the subconscious mind is that which is able to connect to the spirit of human consciousness and
allow the individual poet to speak for the multitude. The imagery of Kubla Khan is a
connective piece that really demonstrates the direction that the second generation will be moving
towards through the fragmentation of the sublime environment. Scholar Michael Raiger
disagrees with the idea that the combination of fancy and dreams is a portion of the inspiration of
Coleridge s poem as he states that in order for the imagery of the poem to demonstrate his
model for poetic creativity, conceived without conscious volition he would have had to
simply [forget] or willfully [suppress], the divide between the unfallen and fallen states of
human experience (638). And with the sublime framing of the natural environment as an
indicator of the Romantic ideal, Raiger also points out that the sublimity dissolves the beautiful
as a formal aesthetic construction (644). The imagery of dreams and the connection made that
they are a distinct form of representation is a theme that is further explored within the works of
the second generation of Romantic poets. Coleridges attempt to recreate the imagery as a
reflection of his model of poetic creativity is complicated due to the direct references he makes

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to classical works, which is also at odds with the tenets of simple, everyday speech and language
demonstrated within Wordsworths Preface to their shared publication Lyrical Ballads.
However, the imagery that is employed and the techniques through which the he describes the
sublimity of nature in the poem shows a continuation of imagery that also follows the tenets,
therefore it does both, demonstrating the poetic ideals of the classics and demonstrates elements
of the methodology that is shown through his other works and those of his contemporaries.
By making the differentiation between the aspects of imagination and determining that
there are two distinct and widely different faculties (Coleridge 477), there is comes into
consideration the hierarchy that is placed between the two terms. This is determined by the
universal quality that Coleridge associates with imagination as a component of the human
condition. Imagination is seen as a pervasive spirit that connects the many to the individual as
well as connects the individual to the rest of the world even through solitary experiences in
nature. The connection that the poet shares with this spirit is a concern for the Romantic poets as
the inspiration of poetic genius is a theme that they investigate in multiple works, Coleridges
poem The Eolian Harp focuses on the gains of the connection while Dejection: an Ode
speaks of its loss.
In the The Eolian Harp, Coleridge speaks of the pervasive spirit that inspires poetry.
The metaphor that connects this spirit to wind draws on Greek mythology and becomes an image
that is repeated again by Coleridge and also appears in the works of John Keats and Percy
Bysshe Shelley. The reference to Grecian myth speaks of the muses breathing inspiration into the
artist as oer them sweeps plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze at once the Soul of each, and
God of all (Coleridge ln. 46-48 pg. 427). This can also be seen to be a breeze of conscious
thought coming through the mind of the poet. This reference also connects to music, the poet

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acting as the instrument and the use of sounds and references to hearing inspiration connects
with the image of the Eolian harp or Eolian lyre as the object responds to the altering wind by
sequences of musical chords (Greenblatt note 1 pg. 426). The aural nature associated with
inspiration and the poets mind gains meaning from the whispers of imagination that reaches his
subconscious thoughts and inspires the poetic verses.
Coleridge also speaks of the loss of this connection with imagination through Dejection:
an Ode. Here the narrator appeals to nature to share the intense sublime experience which
previously inspired powerful emotions. Scholar J. Robert Barth demonstrates in his article
discussing this connection the poet shares with imagination that, without this breath of
inspiration, the world is now without meaning (181) in the eyes of the poet-narrator. The
feeling of dejection stems from the void that is left in the absence of the connection formed
between the poet and the spirit of imagination. In this absence the poet loses much of his sensory
perception as he also speaks of blindness as he gazes around him with how blank an eye (ln.
30 pg. 467), not seeing the sparkling wonders that once incited passion and joy as it connected
with the poet as he shared with the spirit of imagination. In the place of imagination, the poet has
allowed the understanding the analytic faculty, the power of mind that deals with parts and
with merely sense impressions to take away his power to shape his experience of the world into
a meaningful whole (Barth 186). This application of logic and reasoning demonstrates a
function of intellectual thought that is at odds with poetic creativity and the resulting loss of the
connection with imagination coincides the dulling of the narrators sensory experiences.
As this movement of thought and interpretation is what cuts the poet off from his
shaping spirit of Imagination (Coleridge ln. 86 pg. 468) the narrator seeks to reestablish his
connection by shaping new experiences in nature. In order to restore this connection with

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imagination, the narrator turns his mind from the despair that plagues his mind at the loss of
inspiration he turns his mind onto the world surrounding his cottage. Yet, even that sublime
world he pictures fails to remove the melancholy he feels until he conjures:
Another tale, with sounds less deep and loud!
A tale of less affright,
And tempered with delight,
As Otways self had framed the tender lay,
Tis of a little child
Upon a lonesome wild,
Not far from home, but she hath lost her way:
And now moans low in bitter grief and fear,
And now screams loud and hopes to make her mother hear. (ln. 119-129)
The importance that is placed on gaining and retaining a connection with imagination and
being re-inspired by sharing the connection of imagination with a child leads to the reflection of
shared experiences as seen in Tintern Abbey and Frost at Midnight. Jennifer Ford states that
Coleridge uses the imagination as an imagination which effects physical change and which,
when combined with a morbid state or action of the corporeal machinery, displays the most
unusual powers (Ford 194). The repetition of seeing imagination as an influence which inspires
melancholy with its loss, demonstrates the importance of connecting to the emotions in nature
within the poems of Wordsworth and Coleridge. This demonstration shows another element of
their poems that is connected by the threads of imagination. The ability that the narrator is
sharing his former experiences and feelings from nature is what recaptures the connection with
imagination that had been lost.
From this introduction to a physical response of losing the connection to the spirit of
imagination, and the split definition which separates the fancy from the imagination that
connects the poets, Coleridges work segues to show those elements treasured by the second

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generation of poets. Of the second generation, Keats work echoes many of the sentiments
displayed in both Wordsworth and Coleridges composition. This can be seen once more in
Kubla Khan as the direct references to Miltons paradise garden from Paradise Lost serves two
purposes in the work:
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! (ln. 31-36)
So that through the reflection of the ice caverns, Coleridge combines the methodology of the
Romantic thoughts with previous poetic sensibility so as to build a bridge between the
differences that can be seen through the different applications of figurative language. As such, it
is their separated consideration of imagination and how it works in poetry that sets Wordsworth
and Coleridges work apart so that the second generation follows the distinctive trends set forth
by one or the other. These different definitions also pave the way for the different themes that are
elevated by the second generation of Romantic poets and Keats work brings these different ideas
together to explore the nature of Truth and Beauty. Through his division of the definition of
imagination, Coleridge acknowledges the soul of the individual and especially the individual
poet and demonstrates a perception of truth in beauty and nature that both of these poets of the
second generation build from.
A theme of Romantic poetry found in the second generations work that relies on
imagination is the fascination that is formed with the state of being in between wakefulness and

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sleep which brings forth the visionary power inspired by the connection made between the poet
and imagination. The dream like state in between having control of the conscious or the
subconscious connects the mind so that dreams are more easily remembered. This middle state
can be induced by both drug and drink and is referenced in Keats Ode to a Nightingale.
Through his descriptions of this in-between state, Keats also speaks of the transience of life
(Newman 148) comparing himself with the nightingale as the poetic inspiration is compared to
the birds song. These differences in the model of Romantic literature also can be seen through
the language that Keats employs and the connections that are made within his poetry. He speaks
with terms borrowed from classical literature as he speaks of the Lethe-wards (Keats ln. 5
pg.827) which is a more obscure reference to the Grecian hell, Hades and the river that the dead
must cross to reach the underworld. Through this, Keats follows in the example Coleridge sets in
Kubla Khan with his references to classical literature through his revival of Greco-Roman
gods. These references are points in which Keats deviates from the original Romantic model put
forth by Wordsworth, but where Coleridges exceptions demonstrate that they add to connections
in the underlying methodology.
The great thing about the images that Keats invokes is the way that they invoke all of the
senses in the reader. Before, there were sections such as the description of the breath of
imagination in The Eolian Harp that dealt with hearing, but as scholar Matthew Scott notes,
with Keats synesthetic immersive imagery and the combination of aesthetic faith they are
real at the moment of attentive reading (4). This quality of the figurative language Keats
employs creates a heavily sensuous poetic experience and really connects the audience with the
spirit of imagination in a more personal way than they were before as witnesses of the poetnarrators epiphanies.

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The way that Keats keeps the methodology intact indicates how the perception of poetry
was changed by the first generation. These definitions they posed upon the previous notions of
imagination and the way that emotions appear within poetry had a level of permanence that
transcended their initial wave of the movement. Because poetry is introduced to contemporary
students as an outlet for emotional stagnation and through psychological therapy also shows how
they changed the way that society perceives poetry as a result of their influences. Keats
continuation of these themes builds from the foundation that was set by Wordsworth and
Coleridge. The changes that appear in thematic concern show the new connections that he made
by building from these fundamental aspects to where they evolved to suit his concerns. The
shared elements that appear educate the audience so that combined there is a natural progression
of ideas that is built from the methodology.

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Works Cited:
Barth, J. Robert. Coleridges Dejection: Imagination, Joy, and the Power of Love. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1985. Pp. 179-192. Print.
Black, Joseph et al eds. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of Romanticism, Vol. 4.
Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2010. Print.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Dejection: An Ode. Pg. 265.
Keats, John. Ode to a Nightingale Pg. 903.
Wordsworth, William. Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Pgs. 223-230.
Ford, Jennifer. "Coleridge on Dreaming: Romanticism, Dreams and the Medical Imagination." New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.
Gill, Stephen. William Wordsworth A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Print.
Greenblatt, Stephen and M.H. Abrams, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Romantic
Period. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Biographia Literaria. Pgs. 474-490.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Kubla-Khan. Pg. 446-447.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison. Pg. 428
Wordsworth, William. Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Pg. 262-273.
Wordsworth William. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud pg. 247.
Johanson, Paula. Poetry Rocks! Early British Poetry Words that Burn. Melrose Park: Enslow
Publishers, Inc., 2010. Pp. 129-149. Print.
Newman, Sandra. The Western Lit Survival Kit: An Irreverent Guide to the Classics from Homer to
Faulkner. New York: Gotham Books, 2012. Print.

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Raiger, Michael. "Fancy, Dreams, and Paradise: Miltonic and Baconian Garden Imagery in Coleridge's
Kubla Khan." Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. Pdf.
Saden, Margery. "Imagination in Rousseau and Wordsworth." Comparative Literature (1970): 328-345.
Print.
Scott, Matthew. The Fate of Beauty. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011. Pdf.
Wheeler, Kathleen M. "Classicism, Romanticism, and Pragmatism The Sublime Irony of Oppositions."
Parallax (1998): 5-20. Print.
Wordsworth, Jonathan. The Mind as Lord and Master: Wordsworth and Wallace Stevens. Wordsworth
Circle, Thomson Gale: 2006. Pp. 130-137. Pdf.
Wordsworth, William. Gipsies. The Works of William Wordsworth, Wordsworth Editions Ltd:
1994. Pp. 192. Print.