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‘That Dome in Air’: Coleridge and the Self-Conscious Poem

‘That Dome in Air’: Coleridge and the Self-Conscious Poem Michael O'Neill 'That Dome in Air': Coleridge and the Selj-Conscious Poem This essay seeks explore, sometimes celebrate, the forms taken by selfconsciousness in Coleridge's poetry, especially self-consciousness about the fact and act of poetic creation. The essay combats a reductive tendency in recent accounts of Coleridge, a tendency which finds its most trenchant expression in books by Marilyn Butler andjerome J. McGann. Both parade a would-be liberal rationalism which implicitly denies the claims on the reader's imagination and intelligence made by Coleridge's poetry. Marilyn Butler tries cut Coleridge down size with the remark that 'he preferred deal with ideas emotionally'.1 Jerome McGann argues that 'Kubla Khan' 'compels a non-rational form of assent a latent structure of ideas; in the end, it urges the reader swear allegiance the idea of non-rational and unselfconscious forms of knowing'.2 But both Butler and McGann invent the schisms they deplore. In the case of 'Kubla Khan', as the essay will conclude by suggesting, the poem does not compel assent 'a latent structure of ideas', a notion which attempts demystify, but merely falsifies, the way the poem works. Rather, it involves the reader in a drama, a drama which centres on the poet's longing http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Romanticism Edinburgh University Press

‘That Dome in Air’: Coleridge and the Self-Conscious Poem

O'NEILL, MICHAEL
Romanticism , Volume 1 (2): 252 – Jan 1, 1995
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
1354-991X
eISSN
1750-0192
DOI
10.3366/rom.1995.1.2.252
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Michael O'Neill 'That Dome in Air': Coleridge and the Selj-Conscious Poem This essay seeks explore, sometimes celebrate, the forms taken by selfconsciousness in Coleridge's poetry, especially self-consciousness about the fact and act of poetic creation. The essay combats a reductive tendency in recent accounts of Coleridge, a tendency which finds its most trenchant expression in books by Marilyn Butler andjerome J. McGann. Both parade a would-be liberal rationalism which implicitly denies the claims on the reader's imagination and intelligence made by Coleridge's poetry. Marilyn Butler tries cut Coleridge down size with the remark that 'he preferred deal with ideas emotionally'.1 Jerome McGann argues that 'Kubla Khan' 'compels a non-rational form of assent a latent structure of ideas; in the end, it urges the reader swear allegiance the idea of non-rational and unselfconscious forms of knowing'.2 But both Butler and McGann invent the schisms they deplore. In the case of 'Kubla Khan', as the essay will conclude by suggesting, the poem does not compel assent 'a latent structure of ideas', a notion which attempts demystify, but merely falsifies, the way the poem works. Rather, it involves the reader in a drama, a drama which centres on the poet's longing

Journal

Romanticism – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1995

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