Wordsworth vs Coleridge

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Wordsworth’s poems are often about walking, and real meetings; Coleridge’s are often sedentary and about imaginary visions. Illustrate and comment on this fact in whatever way seems appropriate. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are often linked together due to their personal friendship and joint writing adventures. However, as discussed in this essay it is apparent that the two poets hold different poetic writing styles and philosophical views. Wordsworth’s focus on real meetings and physical journeys contrast with Coleridge’s focus on physical stillness and journeys of the mind and imagination. Although the notion of the ‘walking tour’ was very popular amongst Romantic poets, Wordsworth was exceptionally enthusiastic about walking as the physical act of it both inspired his poetry and his mindset. Walking influenced Wordsworth’s poetry immensely, for it illustrated his connection with nature, as well as his perceptions of, and interactions with, characters from all walks of life. Wordsworth’s love of walking is transferred into his ‘walking poems’; Beggars, The Discharged Soldier, Resolution and Independence and Point Rash Judgement. In all of these poems the speaker within the poem – whether it be Wordsworth the poet himself or simply a man of no identity, is a character who has embarked upon a walk of some kind (leisurely, travel-based etc). Wordsworth’s ‘walking poems’ focus predominantly on real scenes as opposed to fictional or fantasy based scenarios. The poems are strongly realistic due to the Wordsworth’s clear and detailed narrative style which constructs a visual scene and provides the reader with the perception that the encounter between speaker and the secondary character is visible. In addition to this, his constructions of the characters themselves are startlingly realistic as they have strong identities that impress upon the

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