Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

Dreaming, Volume 7, Number. 2, June 1997

Dreams and the Egotistical Sublime: Coleridge and Wordsworth
Tim Fulford
Page 85

Coleridge, Wordplay, and Dream
L.R. Kennard
Page 99
Available online

 Coleridge, Mary Robinson, and the Prosody of Dreams
Daniel Robinson
Page 119

The Projected Poet: Coleridge's Use of Dream in Dramatic Reception
Bobbie Jo Allen
Page 141

Coleridge and Andrew Baxter on Dreaming
John Beer
Page 157

The Importance of Dreams in Coleridge’s Theanthropology
Mary Ann Perkins
Page 171
 

Tim Fulford, Ph.D.
Dreams and the Egotistical Sublime: Coleridge and Wordsworth
Dreaming, Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(2) 85-98, Jun 1997.
 
Abstract:

This article explores the significance of dreaming in Coleridge's aesthetic, in the context of his need to differentiate his work from that of Wordsworth. It argues that Coleridge sought to vindicate his own writing, as well as to make generally valid statements, when he compared poetry and dreaming on the basis that the imaginary objects of each are symbolic of a subjective self that is not explicitly present. In opposition to Wordsworth's "sublime egotism," Coleridge's aesthetic emphasized the loss, rather than the (re)discovery of self, and allowed for fragmentation and repetition rather than growth. It formed an alternative Romantic ideology—one capable of challenging the claims of that with which we are more familiar—an "aesthetics of inachievement". The texts examined in the article are "The Pains of Sleep," "Kubla Khan," and "Christabel," as well as numerous notebook entries, published and unpublished.

Key Words: Coleridge; Wordsworth; aesthetics; dream poetry

Abstract:

Wordplay is creative sign-making: it deploys patterns of identity or resemblance among signifiers, allowing linguistic form to create fresh, unique meanings. In broad agreement with a definition that includes but also exceeds punning, wordplay occupies a central position in Freudian dream theory, participating in the dream-work as a form of condensation. Coleridge, interested like Freud in both dreams and wordplay, directs the interest towards poetry and poetics. Analysis of two canonical poems of 1797-8, "Kubla Khan" and "Frost at Midnight," shows that in both wordplay flourishes within a context of reverie and dream. His evidence suggests that Coleridge, aware like Freud of the hermeneutic tradition which linked wordplay and dream, made use of the connection to produce highly-condensed works that satisfy his own poetic ideal of "untranslatableness." For Coleridge, dream-states legitimate wordplay because, for him as for Freud, wordplay is the language of dream.

Key Words: poetics; wordplay; dream poetry; condensation.

Available online

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mary Robinson are two poets of the Romantic period whose poetry is ostensibly concerned with the experience of dreaming and the representation of dreams in verse. Both poets knew and admired the other, perhaps because of their shared experiences with opium and dreams. They both find the poem in his or her dreams but then fix the dream in poetic form. The metrical experiments of both poets in their dream poems are conscious acts of representing in verse the experience of dreaming. This is accomplished not merely through figurative poetic language but also through what I will call the prosody of dreams—the theory and principles of versification as they pertain to dream poetry. The prosody of dreams, then, refers specifically to the way these two Romantic poets use metrical effects to represent a dream world, suggesting that, for them at least, dreams can be understood through the self-conscious approximation of the dream experience in verse. Robinson and Coleridge use poetic form and metrical experimentation to explore in verse the unfathomed depths of the unconscious mind and the creative potentialities of dreaming. Their poetry suggests that each had an intimate familiarity with the work of the other, but their strikingly similar approaches to the prosody of dreams remains a compelling intersection that has yet to be discussed. A closer look at the poetic forms of dreams created by these two pioneering dream poets, in addition to illuminating some pertinent poems by Mary Robinson, will substantially inform our understanding of Coleridge and the way he understood his dreams and of the poetic practice of representing dreams in verse.

Key Words: poetics; prosody; meter; rhythm; dream poetry.

Bobbie Jo Allen, Ph.D.
The Projected Poet: Coleridge's Use of Dream in Dramatic Reception
Dreaming, Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(2) 85-98, Jun 1997.

Abstract:

According to Coleridge's poetics, the absence of a stable self, the disruption of cause and effect, and the misalignment of space and time provide both dreams and poetry with the quality of internally staged dramas. The experience of poetry, both in its composition and in its reading, becomes a wakened dream in which the self surrenders will and belief entirely. The poet becomes a dramatist, able to induce a projected version of his own mind into the reader. By conceiving poetry and the poet in this way, Coleridge not only increased the range of his own poetic power, but redefined poetry itself in the image of dreams.

Key Words: : Coleridge; drama; dream poetry.

Abstract:

Andrew Baxter's Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul (1733) included an attempt to prove its immateriality by studying the nature of dreams. Since he took the body to consist entirely of inert matter, it followed that any dream must be caused by some "living, intelligent cause" that was external to it. Coleridge's statement in 1827 asserting the importance of Baxter's work points back to his first acquaintance with it in the mid-1790s and indicates a subsequent influence on his thinking that was still at work. Some effects can be found, it is suggested, in Coleridge's tolerance of the idea of external spirits; still more fruitful was Baxter's discussion of the interworking of active and passive powers in the imagination, including its implications for Coleridge's thinking about the nature of the subjective and the objective and his continuing puzzlement concerning the relationship between the powers of conscience and those of the unconscious creative imagination.

Key Words: imagination; fancy; nightmare; soul; supernatural.

Mary Ann Perkins, Ph.D.
The Importance of Dreams in Coleridge’s Theanthropology
Dreaming, Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(2) 171-183, Jun 1997

Abstract:

This study explores the relationship between Coleridge’s dream investigations and his search for a unified "theanthropology". It examines the implications of his conclusions for the nature of perception and identity, for personality and moral freedom. Drawing on some of the sources from the wide range of his reading, it draws attention to the complex levels of his inquiry, and to his analysis of the tension between natural causes and supernatural mystery in relation to the dream state.

 
Key Words: Coleridge; identity; morality; supernatural; dream theory.