Coleridge vs. Wordsworth - A Perspective of Adorno

Coleridge vs. Wordsworth

  When critics compare Wordsworth and Coleridge, they seem to have given an impression that the poets are similar rather than different and the latter is superior to the former. They often say that Coleridge"s poetics influenced Wordsworth but not the other way around. They did not pay much attention to the significance of the two poets" different orientations: Wordsworth"s empiricism and Coleridge"s transcendentalism and organism. And the latter with the halo of German philosophy has been considered a more developed idea than the former. According to Theodor Adorno, however, transcendentalism and organism are antiquated theories and in this light Wordsworth should be considered as a modern poet. Adorno argues that transcendentalism comes into being as a result of the Enlightenment which supports the idea that subject precedes object: the idea that subject can constitute itself and disregard object, consequently causes the degeneration of its sensibility. Organicism is a notion which tries to compel all the different parts to be co-opted into the whole. Wordsworth, in his poetry, emphasizes sensibility to perceive the vitality of nature and does not try to transcend time and place but to portray the people in his neighbor, who suffer from economic and social conflicts without melting them down into the whole.