Literary
Criticism and Theory- Part II
John
Dryden’s ‘Preface to the Fables’
Snippets
Design
1. Dryden
had designed the Fables to be a very modest experiment in verse translations of
the Greek classic Iliad. Under this scheme Dryden translated the first book of
Iliad which became the first tale in his fables. Then Dryden passed on to
translate the twelfth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Thereafter he rendered into
modern English five of Chaucers’s tales from The Canterbury Tales.
Homer and Ovid
2.
Dryden started with
translating the first book of Homer’s Iliad. This is the first verse tale in
Dryden’s Fables. Then Dryden took up to translate the twelfth book of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses. He chose this book because it contains the causes, the beginning
and ending, of the Trojan War. To this he also added the speeches of Ajax and
Ulysses who come next in the original epic. Then comes the verse translation of
the twelfth and fifteenth books of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. From Ovid he also
translated the stories entitled the Hunting of the Boar, Cinyras and Myrrha and
Baucis and Philemon.
Homer and Virgil
3.
Dryden stated that he
intended to translate the whole of Iliad if providence gave him life long enough
to complete his project. The themes of Homer and Virgil are the same. But
Dryden found Homer more congenial to his taste than Virgil. Virgil was of a quiet,
sedate temper; Homer was violent, impetuous and full of fire. The chief talent
of Virgil was propriety of thought and ornaments of words: Homer was rapid in
his thoughts, and took all the liberties, both of numbers and of expression,
which his language, and the age in which he lived, allowed him.
4.
Virgil followed the way
Homer showed him. Virgil could not have written heroic poetry without Homer’s
model before him. Virgil’s Aeneas is a continuation of Homer’s story in Iliad.
The heroes of the two poets reflect their own characters. Homer’s Achilles is
hot, impatient and revengeful, while Virgil’s Aeneas is considerate, patient
and submissive to the will of heaven. The action of Homer’s epic is more
vigorous and hence more powerful as well as quick in moving the reader, while
Virgil’s epic warms the reader slowly and by degrees.
Ovid and Chaucer
5.
Dryden brings Ovid and
Chaucer to comparison and assesses their value and importance in the historical
background of their own countries. Ovid wrote his Metamorphoses
at a time when Latin, in which it was written, had reached its highest point.
But when Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in English, the English language
was still in its infancy. Chaucer actually gave a definite shape to English as
a literary language. Chaucer is to be hailed, therefore not only as the father
of English poetry but also as the father of the English language. But Chaucer
was indebted to Ovid for a model, as Ovid was indebted to his earlier poets.
Still while several of Chaucer’s tales are original, in Ovid there is nothing
that may be called original. But both of them excel in creating vivid
characters and realistic situations. Each is a great poet in his own way.
Chaucer as a Poet
6.
Dryden holds Chaucer in
veneration as the father of English poetry as the Greeks venerate Homer and the
Romans Virgil. Chaucer is the perpetual fountain of good sense. He followed
nature everywhere, without making so bold as to go beyond her. The verse of
Chaucer is not so harmonious to us because we cannot appreciate the canons of
language of his times. In defence of Chaucer, however, Dryden says that “he lived
in the infancy of our poetry, and that nothing is brought to perfection at
first. He was admired and favoured by three English monarchs- Edward the Third,
Richard the second, and Henry the Fourth. In religion he was inclined towards
Wycliff. He satirized false and licentious monks, friars and priests in good
humour and spirit.
Chaucer’s Comprehensive
Range
7. Dryden
greatly admires Chaucer for his wide comprehension and universal range. Chaucer
had taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and
humours of the whole English nation in his age. Not a single character escaped
him.
Dryden’s Attackers
8.
Dryden was severely
attacked by his enemies and literary rivals. In fact, Dryden gave full
allowance to his attackers in his choice of stories he translated. Some people,
including Mr. Cowley, were greatly offended that Dryden had turned some of
Chaucer’s tales into modern English. Many thought that Chaucer was dry,
old-fashioned, out-dated, and not worth reviving. However, Dryden found that
his soul was congenial to Chaucer’s. Dryden felt it necessary sometimes to
restore the sense of Chaucer, which was lost or mangled in the errors of the
press.
Dryden’s own Defence
9.
Dryden defends himself
against all objections and allegations. The first end of a writer is to be
understood. If his language grows obsolete, his thoughts must grow obscure.
When an ancient word for its sound and significance deserves to be revived,
there is reasonable veneration for antiquity to restore it. All beyond this is
superstition.
Self- Vindication
10.
Dryden further
vindicates himself against the attacks of two libellers, Milbourne and Blackmore.
Milbourne’s main charge against Dryden was that he had attacked the clerical
profession. Dryden says that he has attacked only bad priests, like Milbourne
himself. Milbourne’s attack is so bad that people might suspet that Dryden
himself had bribed him to make it, so that he could rebut it and thus establish
his point. Milbourne also faisely charged that Dryden had the ambition of
joining the clerical profession. Dryden says that he had no such desire or
ambition. As for Blackmore, Dryden declined to say anything because he had by
that time died.
Collier’s Attack
11.
Jeremy Collier
charged Dryden for using profane and licentious expressions. He makes a public
apology for this lapse. However, he points out that at places Collier had
unfairly construed the words of Dryden in order to obtain an objectionable
meaning from them. Moreover, Collier attacked all the plays of Dryden on this
ground. He attacked Dryden out of malice and not out of righteous zeal. About
other libellers Dryden only says that he would not say anything about them
because they are sheer scoundrels and unworthy of his notice.
Expected Questions
1.
Who considered Dryden
as the father of English criticism, as the writer who first taught us to
determine upon principles the merit of composition?
a. Matthew
Arnold
b. Joseph
Addison
c. Alexander
Pope
d. Dr.
Samuel Johnson
Ans: D
Explanation: Samuel
Johnson often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English writer who made
lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary
critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. He was a devout Anglican and
committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English
history". He is also the subject of the biography ‘The Life of Samuel
Johnson’ by James Boswell.
2. An
Essay on Dramatic Poesy (1668) is written by:
a. John
Dryden
b. Dr.
Johnson
c. Addison
d. Pope
Ans:
A
Explanation: John
Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was
made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the
literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be
known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott called him
"Glorious John".
3. “Shakespeare
was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets, Jonson was the Virgil, the
pattern of elaborate writing, I admire him but I love Shakespeare.” Who
expressed this opinion
a. S.T.
Coleridge
b. Ben
Jonson
c. Dr.
Johnson
d. John
Dryden
Ans:
D
Explanation: Dryden
in his ‘Preface to Fables’, compared the worth of one writer with that of
another. Thus he highlighted the individual characteristics of some writers.
4. An
Essay on Dramatic Poesy (1668) is written by:
a. John
Dryden
b. Dr.
Johnson
c. Pope
d. Addison
Ans:
A
Explanation: It
is the greatest critical work of Dryden. It was written as a reply to some
highly uncomplimentary remarks of a Frenchman, Samuel Sorbiere in the account
of his voyage. He condemned the English comedies for not following the three
unities, especially the unity of place.
5. Who
first used the words fancy and imagination in his theory of poetry?
a. S.T.
Coleridge
b. John
Dryden
c. Joseph
Addison
d. William
Wordsworth
Ans:
B
Explanation: Imagination,
for which Dryden uses the word “fancy”, tempered with judgement, helps the poet
in the process of creating just and lively images of human nature. The function
of poetry is “the delight and instruction of mankind.
6. Who
used the words, “It is not enough that Aristotle had said so, for Aristotle
drew his model of tragedy from Sophocles and Euripides, and if he had seen
ours, might have changed his mind.”
a. John
Dryden
b. Coleridge
c. Pope
d. Wordsworth
Ans:
A
Explanation: Dryden
agrees that plot may be “foundation” of a tragedy but he does not agree with
Aristotle who said that “plot is the soul of tragedy”
7. In
Dryden’s Essay on Dramatic Poesy, who is the character, Neander?
a. Sir
Robert Howard
b. Sir
Charles Sedley
c. Sackville
d. Dryden
Ans:
D
Explanation:
Neander, who is Dryden himself, demonstrates the superiority of the English
over the French.
Dr. Johnson’s ‘Preface
to Shakespeare’
Snippets
1. Dr.
Johnson’s criticism, which was written after the age of forty, falls into four
groups. First, his critical interest is discerned in a dozen papers which
appeared in the ‘Rambler’ and in his remarks on poetry in ‘Rasselas’. Secondly,
there is the ‘Dictionary’, “itself a
critical endeavour, as well as a programme and aid for future criticism”.
Thirdly, there is the edition of Shakespeare, preceded by the Proposals for
Printing the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare. Fourthly, there is his Magnum Opus,
‘The Lives of Poets, in which, according to John Watson, “he explains his
learned reputation to evaluate the English poets of the past hundred years”.
2. Johnson
exposes the defects of contemporary criticism and distrusts taste and beauty as
test of literary values. Beauty, “vague and undefined different in different
minds and diversified by time and place”, cannot be the sure test of literary
judgement.
3. The
business of criticism, according to Johnson, was to free literary judgements
from the “anarchy of ignorance, the caprice of fancy and the tyranny of
prescription.” It was to evaluate a piece of literature purely on rational
ground.
4. In
the Preface to Shakespeare he writes that “the end of poetry is to instruct by
pleasing.” Therefore, “its effect proceeds from the display of those parts of
nature which attract the concealment of those which repel the imagination.”
5. Johnson’s
remarks on the classification of poetry are remarkable. Epic poetry is the
best. He does admire pastoral elegy because of its unrealistic and unconvincing
presentation. He also finds Pindaric ode “unsuitable for modern age.” As
regards versification he preferred regularity and fitness. He disapproved blank
verse because it “seems to be verse only to the eye” and there is “neither the
easiness of prose nor the melody of numbers in it.”
6. Dr.
Johnson writes about the poetic diction that “words too familiar or too remote
defeat the purpose of a poet.” Such words should be carefully avoided. It is
the happy combination of words which distinguishes poetry. Just and apt
similes, which illustrate the meaning or intent of the poet properly, must be
used.
7. Johnson
expressed his views on dramatic artists’ nature, the unities, dramatic pleasure
and tragic-comedy. Drama, being a species of poetry, must hold up “a faithful
mirror of manners and of life”. It should present human sentiments in human
language.” The characters in a play represent men in all ages. Defining drama,
Johnson writes in the Preface to Shakespeare: “Drama, therefore, is just a
representation of human nature both in its workings in individuals and in
humanity at large.” He defends tragic-comedy because it is nearer to “the
appearance of life.”
8. Johnson’s
criticism of Shakespeare, which is contained in ‘Observations on the Tragedy of
Macbeth and ‘The Preface’, is of lasting value. The Preface, in the words of
John Watson, is “in essence a brilliant exercise in descriptive criticism-
Johnson’s first extended attempt at the form- with a major essay in theoretical
criticism, the reputation of the unities of time and place inserted midway, and
a long appendix on editorial method.”
Expected Questions
1. How
does Johnson represent Shakespeare’s characters?
a.
They play exaggerated roles
b.
They are ambiguous
c.
They are the true representations of human nature
d.
They are artificial
Ans:
C
Explanation: His
characters are a just representation
of human nature as they deal with passions and principles which are common to
humanity. They are also true to the age, sex, profession to which they belong
and hence the speech of one cannot be put in the mouth of another. His
characters are not exaggerated. Even when the agency is supernatural, the
dialogue is level with life.
2. Shakespeare’s
plays represent only
a.
Romance
b.
History
c.
Tragedy and Comedy
d.
Philosophy of life
Ans:
D
Explanation: His
plays are a
storehouse of practical wisdom and from them can be formulated a philosophy of
life. Moreover, his plays represent the different passions and not love alone.
In this, his plays mirror life.
3. Shakespeare
has been much criticized for his use of which device in his plays?
a.
Tragi-comedy
b.
Tragedy
c.
Comedy
d.
None of these
Ans:
A
Explanation: Shakespeare has been much criticized for mixing tragedy
and comedy, but Johnson defends him in this. Johnson says that in mixing
tragedy and comedy, Shakespeare has been true to nature, because even in real
life there is a mingling of good and evil, joy and sorrow, tears and smiles
etc. this may be against the classical rules, but there is always an appeal
open from criticism to nature. Moreover, tragic-comedy being nearer to life
combines within itself the pleasure and instruction of both tragedy and comedy.
4. According
to Johnson which came natural to Shakespeare and uses language of real life?
a.
Tragedy
b.
Comedy
c.
Tragi -comedy
d.
Poems
Ans:
B
Explanation:
Johnson says that comedy came
natural to Shakespeare. He seems to produce his comic scenes without much
labour, and these scenes are durable and hence their popularity has not
suffered with the passing of time. The language of his comic scenes is the
language of real life which is neither gross nor over refined, and hence it has
not grown obsolete.
5.
Shakespeare shows no regard for the
a.
Unity of time and place
b.
Unity of action
c.
Unity of consistency of characters
d.
None of these
Ans:
A
Explanation:
His plots have the variety and
complexity of nature, but have a beginning, middle and an end, and one event is
logically connected with another, and the plot makes gradual advancement
towards the denouement.
6. “Shakespeare writes without moral purpose
and is more careful to please than to instruct. There is no poetic justice in
his plays”. Who said this?
a.
Dr. Johnson
b.
Dryden
c.
Pope
d.
Coleridge
Ans:
A
Explanation: Shakespeare writes without moral purpose and is
more careful to please than to instruct. There is no poetic justice in his
plays. This fault cannot be excused by the barbarity of his age for justice is
a virtue independent of time and place.
7.
In the opinion of Johnson what is the major fault of Shakespeare’s plots?
a.
Loosely formed
b.
Compact
c.
Very complex
d.
None of the above
Ans:
A
Explanation: His
plots are loosely formed, and only a little attention would have improved them.
He neglects opportunities of instruction that his plots offer, in fact, he very
often neglects the later parts of his plays and so his catastrophes often seem
forced and improbable.
8.
Which verse form did Shakespeare perfect according to Johnson?
a.
Epic verse
b.
Sonnet
c.
Blank verse
d.
Free verse
Ans:
C
Explanation: He
perfected the blank verse, imparted to it diversity and flexibility and brought
it nearer to the language of prose.
Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical
Ballads
1.
Wordsworth was the chief spokesman of the Romantic Movement. His Preface to
Lyrical Ballads says M.H. Abraham has been one of the most discussed and
influential of all critical essays. “In the preface Wordsworth tried to
overflow the basic theory, as well as the practice of non-classical poetry and
also sought to defend and justify the new kind of poetry that he himself and
Coleridge were writing.”
2.
In the Preface Wordsworth says that his principle object in the Preface is to
choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them
throughout as far as was possible in a selection really used by man, and at the
same time to throw over theory a certain colouring of imagination. Where by
ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect in setting
before him.
3.
Wordsworth, who was a democrat and who at one time had been ardent admirer of
the French-revolution, used the preface to translate his democratic sympathies
into critical terms. He even turned the preface of tradition and decorum in
order to justify the serious pathetic treatment of peasants, children, and criminals.
4.
In the Preface Wordsworth also attacked the ‘Poetic Diction’ of neo-classic
writers. He criticized the neo-classic writers for their gaudiness and
phraseology. Wordsworth undertook to deal with humble and rustic life in
selection of language really used by men but purified from all lasting and
rational causes of disguise and disgust. Wordsworth took the radical position
that there was not any essential difference between the Language of prose and
that of metrical composition.
5.
Wordsworth opposed the basic neoclassic principle that in order to give it
proper pleasure the language of the poem must be artfully elevated over
standard prose by a special diction and figures of speech in order to make
itself to the height of dignity of its particular poetic kind.
6.
Wordsworth’s own views of poetic style and language are based on the new
critical promise and the art of this theory that all good poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.
7.
Wordsworth’s major critical contribution was to assert emphatically that humble
and rustic life was proper and suitably fit for poetry. Wordsworth not only
democratized but revolutionized English poetry.
Expected Questions
1.
When was the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads published?
a.
1797
b.
1798
c.
1800
d.
1802
Ans:
B
Explanation: Wordsworth’s
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is a critical document of abiding significance.
It underwent a number of revisions till it acquired the present form. The
Lyrical Ballads was first published in 1798 and to this edition Wordsworth
merely added a short advertisement or introduction.
2.
In which work Wordsworth observed that his poems were “an experiment to
ascertain how for the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes
of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure”?
a.
The Preface of 1798
b.
The Preface of 1800
c.
The advertisement of Lyrical Ballads
d.
Note on the Thorn.
Ans:
C
Explanation: In
this advertisement, the poet modestly pointed out that his poems were in nature
of experiment to find out whether themes taken from humble and common life and
composed in language of real people are suitable for poetry. He also attacked
the artificial diction of contemporary poetry.
3.
By “selection of language really used by men” Wordsworth means:
a.
The language of the educated class.
b.
The language of the common man.
c.
The language of men in a state of vivid sensation.
d.
The language of scholars
Ans:
C
Explanation: By
selection he means that it should be “purified from provincialism” and from all
“rational causes of disgust and dislike, it was to be selected; it was to be
the language of men in a state of vivid sensation.”
4.
Wordsworth published the “Lyrical Ballads” in collaboration with -------
a.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
b.
John Keats
c.
P.B. Shelley
d.
Byron
Ans:
A
Explanation: Coleridge
is one of the greatest poet-critics that England has produced. His main
critical works are the Biographia Literaria (1817) and Lectures on Shakespeare
and Other Poets (1808-1819).
5.
Who is the author of the ‘Prelude’?
a.
Coleridge
b.
Shelley
c.
Wordsworth
d.
Byron
Ans:
C
Explanation: The
‘Prelude’ or Growth of a Poet’s Mind is an autobiographical poem in blank verse
by William Wordsworth. It is a poetic reflection on poetry itself.
6.
Who defined poetry as spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which
takes
its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility?
a.
Coleridge
b.
William Wordsworth
c.
T. S. Eliot
d.
Aristotle
Ans:
B
Explanation:
Defining poetry Wordsworth observes that “all good poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin in emotion recollected in
tranquility.” This process has four stages: recollection, contemplation,
recrudescence and composition. Imagination plays a vital role in this process.
7.
Wordsworth’s special object of “Lyrical Ballads” was to:
a.
Choose incidents and situations from common life
b.
To relate and describe them in a selection of language really used by men
c.
Treat the subject imaginatively so that ordinary things would appear
unusual
d.
All the above
Ans:
D
Explanation: The
principal object in his poems was “to choose incidents and situations from
common life and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as possible in a
selection of language really used by men, and at the same time, to throw over
them a certain colouring of imagination; whereby ordinary things should be
presented to the mind in an unusual aspect…”. He chose humble and rustic life
because primarily human emotions and passions are found in their pure state.
They convey “their feelings in simple and unelaborated expressions.”
8.
“Every great poet is a teacher. I wish either to be considered as a teacher or
as nothing.” Who said it?
a.
Wordsworth
b.
Coleridge
c.
Shelley
d.
None of these.
Ans:
A
Explanation:
Wordsworth wrote to Beaumont.
9.
“Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of knowledge; it is the impassioned
expression which is in the countenance of science.” Whose words are these?
a.
Coleridge
b.
Shelley
c.
Wordsworth
d.
None of the above
Ans:
C
Explanation:
To Wordsworth poetry is the most philosophical of all writings. The true object
of poetry “is truth, not individual and local, but general and operative.”
10.
Who became the first critic to build a theory of poetry and gave an account of
the nature of creative process?
a.
Wordsworth
b.
T.S. Eliot
c.
Coleridge
d.
Shelley
Ans:
A
Explanation:
Wordsworth’s Preface is a comprehensive critical document. It is a landmark in
Romantic criticism, which gave a new direction, consciousness and programme to
English Romantic Movement.
8. Coleridge’s Biographia literaria-
Chapter IV
Snippets
1.
The written monuments of Coleridge’s critical work is contained in 24 chapter
of Biographic Literaria (1815-17).In this critical disquision, Coleridge
consents himself not only with the practice of criticism, but also, with its
theory. In his practical approach to criticism, we get the glimpse of Coleridge
the poet; whereas in theoretical discussion, Coleridge the Philosopher came to
the center stage.
2.
In chapter XIV (14) of Biographia
Literaria, Coleridge’s view on nature and function of poetry in discussed in
philosophical terms .The poet within Coleridge discusses the difference between
poetry and prose, and the immediate function of poetry, whereas the philosopher
discusses the difference between poetry and poem. He was the first English
writer to insist that every work of art is, by its very nature, an organic
whole. At the first step he rules out the
assumption, which, from Horace onwards, had wrought such havoc in
critism, that the object of poetry is to instruct; or, as a less extreme form
of the heresy had asserted, to make men morally better.
3.
In first point about poetry, Coleridge tries to say that a poet writes a poem
related to nature in very simple form and style. Any people can read and enjoy
poetry. So the poet is devoted and loyal to the nature and has power to moving
reader’s heart and mind towards the nature. It was decided and by him that
William Wordsworth would write poetry dealing with the theme according to first
basic point.
4.
In second point about poetry, Coleridge drags our attention towards
supernatural elements and the events. And he also said that he use to write
poems, related with this second cardinal point.
5.
He said that poet converts poetry and atmosphere of poetry with the help of his
self imagination and with mind’s eye poet can turn all natural things into
supernatural. Poet can create an imaginative world with his thoughts.
6.
Coleridge himself not agrees with Wordsworth’s views on poetic diction. He
gives a different point of view about poetic faith in ‘Biographia Literaria’.
Wordsworth adopted language of day to day life in poetry in ‘Lyrical Ballads’. In
the Preface, Wordsworth gives a strong and powerful criticism on using of common
language in poetry.
7.
The poem includes the same elements as prose compositions. So it is bit
difficult to differentiate poem and prose but the difference is between
combination of those elements and objects aimed at in both the composition. So
they both are different in their particular aim for which they are written by
poet.
8.
According to Coleridge, Imagination has two forms: primary and secondary.
In
the 13th chapter of Biographia Literaria, Coleridge talks of fancy and
imagination.
9.
Primary imagination is merely the power of receiving impressions of the
external world through the senses, it perceives objects both in their parts and
as a whole. It is an involuntary act of the mind: the human mind receives
impressions and sensations from the outside world unconsciously and
involuntarily it imposes some sort of order on those impressions, reduces them
to shape and size, so that the mind is able to form a clear image of the
outside world. It is in this way that clear and coherent perception becomes
possible.
10.
Secondary imagination makes artistic creation possible. It requires an effort
of the will and conscious effort. It works upon what is perceived by the
primary imagination: its raw material is the sensations and impressions
supplied to it by the primary imagination. It selects and orders the raw
material, and reshapes and remodels it into objects of beauty. It is
‘esemplastic’ and it ‘dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to create’. The
Secondary Imagination is at the root of all poetic activity. It is the power
which harmonizes and reconciles opposites, and Coleridge calls it a magical
synthetic power. It fuses the various faculties of the soul-the subjective with
the objective, the human mind with external nature, the spiritual with the
physical or material.
11.
Imagination and fancy differ in kind. Fancy is not a creative power at all, but
is a mechanical process which receives the elementary images which come to it ready made, and without
altering these, fancy reassembles them
into a different order from that in which it was received. It only
combines what it perceives into beautiful shapes, but does not fuse and unify.
It is a kind of memory that arbitrarily brings together images, and even when
brought together, these images continue to retain their separate and individual
properties. They receive no colouring and or modification from the mind.
12.
During the perusal of a poem or the witnessing of a play, there is neither
belief nor disbelief, but a mere suspension of disbelief.
13.
Coleridge established that the poem is an organic whole, and that its form is
determined by its content and is essential to that content. Thus metre and
rhyme are not merely ‘pleasure super-added’, not something superfluous which
can be dispensed with, not mere decoration, but essential to that pleasure
which is true poetic pleasure.
Expected Questions
1.
Who coined the term, “esemplastic imagination”?
a.
Wordsworth
b.
Coleridge
c.
Shelley
d.
T.S.Eliot
Ans:
Coleridge
Explanation: Use
of the word has been limited to describing mental processes and writing, such
as "the esemplastic power of a great mind to simplify the difficult",
or "the esemplastic power of the poetic imagination". The meaning
conveyed in such a sentence is the process of someone, most likely a poet,
taking images, words, and emotions from a number of realms of human endeavor
and thought and unifying them all into a single work. Coleridge argues that
such an accomplishment requires an enormous effort of the imagination and,
therefore, should be granted with its own term.
2.
The term esemplastic means:
a.
To shape into one
b.
To divide and diversify
c.
To assemble together
d.
None of these
Ans:
A
Explanation: Esemplastic
is a qualitative adjective which the English romantic poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge claimed to have invented. Despite its etymology from the Ancient
Greek word "to shape", the term was modeled on Schelling's
philosophical term, Ineinsbildung – the interweaving of opposites – and implies
the process of an object being moulded into unity. The first recorded use of
the word is in 1817 by Coleridge in his work, Biographia Literaria, in
describing the esemplastic – the unifying – power of the imagination.
3.
Who made the comment that fancy is “arbitrary to bringing together of things
that lie remote and forming them into a unity.”
a.
Dryden
b.
Wordsworth
c.
Coleridge
d.
Arnold
Ans:
C
Explanation:
Fancy is not a creative power at all, but is a mechanical process which
receives the elementary images which come to it ready made, and without
altering these, fancy reassembles them into a different order from that in
which it was received. It only combines what it perceives into beautiful
shapes, but does not fuse and unify.
4.
The term “willing suspension of disbelief” was first used in:
a.
The Lyrical Ballads
b.
An Essay on Dramatic Poesy
c.
The Life of Milton
d.
The Biographia Literaria
Ans:
D
Explanation: The
term suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief has been
defined as a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe
something surreal; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment. The
term was coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest
and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend
judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Suspension of
disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and
horror genres.
5.
A critic observed about Coleridge that he “with his authority due to his great
reading, probably did much more than Wordsworth to bring attention to the
profundity of the philosophic problems into which the study of poetry may take
us.” Name the critic:
a.
Scott James
b.
T.S. Eliot
c.
George Saintsbury
d.
George Watson
Ans:
B
Explanation: Perfect
poetry results when instead of ‘dissociation of sensibility’ there is
‘unification of sensibility’. The emotional and the rational, the creative and
the critical, faculties must work in harmony to produce great work of art.
Critics stressed that the aim of poetry is to give pleasure or to teach
morally. However, for Eliot the greatness of a poem is tested by the order and
unity it imposes on the chaotic and disparate experiences of the poet.
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