I’m not quite sure when Coleridge’s ‘Biographia
Literaria’ was first published, but much that he says in it about writing style
could be usefully read by many present-day writers, particularly of poetry. One
poet who followed his advice — or perhaps didn’t need to, having worked it out
for himself — was the unjustly neglected Basil Bunting, who said that after he
had written a poem he would read through it, crossing out at least half its
words. Poetry is the quintessence of language. Here is a very short extract
from Coleridge’s book; he is talking about one of his school-teachers.
In our own English compositions, (at
least for the last three years of
our school education,) he showed no
mercy to phrase, metaphor, or image,
unsupported by a sound sense, or
where the same sense might have been
conveyed with equal force and dignity
in plainer words. Lute,
harp, and lyre, Muse, Muses, and
inspirations, Pegasus, Parnassus, and
Hippocrene were all an abomination to
him. In fancy I can almost hear
him now, exclaiming "Harp? Harp?
Lyre? Pen and ink, boy, you mean! Muse,
boy, Muse? Your nurse's daughter, you
mean! Pierian spring? Oh aye!
the cloister-pump, I suppose!"
Nay certain introductions, similes,
and examples, were placed by name on a list of
interdiction.
For you picture fans, here is one
of Samuel Taylor Coleridge himself:
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