Coleridge and the Romantic Sublime

Abstract

One of the most instructive things to be learned from this episode of Wordsworth’s entanglement with Coleridge is how their respective theories of the sublime were conceived in reaction to each other’s views. Coleridge’s image of Wordsworth as a man who was in the habit of surrendering the mind to objects of sense and as one in need of more ample philosophic training must have affected Wordsworth enough for him to try to compensate for the deficiency that displeased his friend. Kant’s philosophy thus presented Wordsworth with a unique opportunity to prove to himself and his friend that the ‘mind of Man’ was what finally mattered. On the other hand, Wordsworth’s image of Coleridge as a stranger to ‘Nature’s living images’, who was more interested in the mind than in nature, left Coleridge insecure about his actual ties to nature and in need of reinforcing them. As much as Coleridge was attracted to Kant, he approached Kant’s philosophy cautiously, particularly where he perceived that taking a Kantian position meant a radical denial of the natural world. Although Coleridge firmly supported Kant’s view that the sublime resides in the mind and not in objects, he stretched and adjusted Kant’s theory to the point where he could maintain a link with nature without compromising the mind’s transcendent aspirations.