Introduction: “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom
“Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom first appeared in Diacritics, Spring 1972″ and explores the complex relationship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his literary influences, particularly the towering figure of John Milton. Bloom argues that Coleridge, despite possessing the potential to be a strong poet, never fully developed his abilities due to the anxiety he felt about living up to his predecessors.
Key points:
- Source Study vs. Influence: Bloom criticizes traditional source studies that simply identify influences on a poet’s work. Instead, he proposes a concept of “poetic misprision,” where the later poet actively reinterprets and challenges the work of the earlier one.
- Revisionary Ratios: Bloom outlines six stages (“revisionary ratios”) a strong poet goes through as they grapple with their influences. These include clinamen (swerving away), tessera (completing and contrasting), kenosis (self-emptying), daemonization (creating a counter-sublime), askesis (self-purgation), and apophrades (the return of the dead).
- Coleridge’s Case: Bloom argues that Coleridge never fully engaged with these revisionary ratios. While he attempted to escape Milton’s influence through poems like “Frost at Midnight,” he ultimately shied away from the full confrontation necessary to become a truly strong poet.
- Later Works: In Coleridge’s later works, like “Dejection: an Ode” and “To William Wordsworth,” Bloom sees an attempt to create an askesis, purging himself of the combined influence of Milton and Wordsworth. However, this effort ultimately led to a decline in his poetic ambitions. It offers a valuable framework for understanding the complex relationship between poets and their influences. Bloom’s concept of “anxiety of influence” has been influential in literary criticism, prompting scholars to examine how poets negotiate their relationship with literary giants of the past.
Summary of “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom
Coleridge’s Poetic Ambition and Anxiety
- Harold Bloom focuses on why Samuel Taylor Coleridge did not fully realize his potential as a “strong poet” comparable to Milton, Blake, or Wordsworth.
- Quote: “Coleridge could have been a strong poet… another mighty antagonist for the Great Spectre Milton to engage.”
Anxiety of Influence Theory
- Bloom introduces his theory of the “anxiety of influence,” wherein poets struggle with the overwhelming influence of their precursors. This theory is applied to Coleridge’s work, showing his anxiety over the dominant poetic tradition, particularly Milton’s influence.
- Quote: “Coleridge’s Counter-Sublime, his answer to the anxiety of influence, in strong poets.”
Pater’s Criticism of Coleridge
- Walter Pater critiqued Coleridge’s fixation on the “absolute,” arguing that it limited his poetic capacity by focusing too rigidly on philosophical absolutes rather than engaging with the relative, mutable nature of reality.
- Quote: “Coleridge failed in that attempt, happily even for him, for it was a struggle against the increasing life of the mind itself.”
Coleridge’s Struggle with Miltonic Influence
- Coleridge admired and envied Milton’s poetic grandeur, but his attempt to emulate Milton often led him into a creative paralysis, inhibiting his own poetic development.
- Quote: “Milton’s greatness is purchased at the cost of something dear to Coleridge, a principle of difference.”
The Organic Analogue and Its Limitations
- Coleridge’s belief in the “organic analogue,” the idea that poetry grows naturally from within, was both a strength and a limitation. Bloom, following Pater, argues that this concept hindered Coleridge by preventing him from confronting the creative struggle necessary for poetic development.
- Quote: “That exaggerated inwardness is barren… it cheats the senses and the emotions of their triumph.”
Poetic Influence and Misprision
- Bloom outlines six “revisionary ratios” that describe how later poets misread and revise the works of their predecessors. These steps reflect the complex relationship between a poet and their precursors, which in Coleridge’s case led to both emulation and resistance.
- Quote: “Poetic influence, in this sense, is actually poetic misprision, a poet’s taking or doing amiss of a parent-poem.”
Coleridge’s Revisionary Struggle
- Coleridge’s early poetry, such as “Religious Musings,” demonstrates his struggle to move beyond Milton’s influence. However, his mature works like “Frost at Midnight” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” show more successful revisionary strategies, though often incomplete.
- Quote: “What was Coleridge trying… to do for himself by writing the poem… trying to free himself from the inhibitions of Miltonic influence.”
Daemonization in “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel”
- In “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel,” Coleridge moves into what Bloom calls the “Counter-Sublime,” engaging with daemonic forces that offer a break from Milton’s overwhelming influence.
- Quote: “Poetic Genius, the genial spirit itself, Coleridge must see as daemonic when it is his own, rather than when it is Milton’s.”
Coleridge’s Retreat from the Strong Poet Path
- Despite his potential, Coleridge withdrew from the full development of a “strong poet,” stopping short of the ferocity required to fully transcend his influences, particularly Milton’s. His later works, including fragments like “Limbo” and “Ne Plus Ultra,” reflect a negative sublime rather than a completed poetic vision.
- Quote: “Coleridge could have become, at last, the poet of the Miltonic abyss, the bard of Demogorgon.”
Supported Quotations
- “Coleridge could have been a strong poet… another mighty antagonist for the Great Spectre Milton to engage.”
- This reflects Bloom’s central argument about Coleridge’s missed potential as a powerful poet who could have stood alongside Milton and Wordsworth.
- “Milton’s greatness is purchased at the cost of something dear to Coleridge, a principle of difference.”
- Coleridge’s admiration of Milton created an internal conflict that hindered his own poetic development.
- “That exaggerated inwardness is barren… it cheats the senses and the emotions of their triumph.”
- Pater’s critique of Coleridge’s obsession with the “absolute,” which ultimately stifled his creative expression.
- “Poetic influence, in this sense, is actually poetic misprision, a poet’s taking or doing amiss of a parent-poem.”
- Bloom’s theory of poetic influence as a creative misinterpretation, essential to Coleridge’s struggle with his predecessors.
- “Trying to free himself from the inhibitions of Miltonic influence.”
- Coleridge’s attempt to overcome the overwhelming shadow of Milton through his own poetic output.
Literary Terms/Concepts in “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom
| Literary Term/Concept | Definition | Explanation in Bloom’s Essay |
| Anxiety of Influence | The psychological struggle of a poet to overcome the influence of their predecessors in order to create original work. | Bloom applies this concept to Coleridge, suggesting that his poetic ambition was inhibited by his reverence for Milton and Wordsworth. |
| Poetic Misprision | A creative misreading or misinterpretation of a precursor’s work by a later poet. | Coleridge’s poetry, according to Bloom, involves a series of misreadings of Milton, in which he tries to revise or alter Milton’s legacy. |
| Clinamen | The swerve or deviation of a poet from their precursor’s work to assert originality. | Bloom argues that Coleridge executed a “swerve” away from Milton in poems like “Frost at Midnight.” |
| Tessera | A term for completing or antithetically extending a precursor’s work, using its elements but altering their meaning. | Bloom suggests that Coleridge attempts this in moments of philosophical divergence, but often fails to fully break free of Milton’s shadow. |
| Kenosis | A deliberate self-emptying or reduction in poetic power to resist the overwhelming influence of a precursor. | In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge humbles himself by reducing the concept of sin from Milton’s grandiose vision to mere ignorance. |
| Daemonization | A poet’s engagement with a “Counter-Sublime” force, often dark or daemonic, to counteract the precursor’s influence. | Coleridge attempts this in “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel,” where he confronts darker, daemonic aspects of poetic genius. |
| Askesis | A self-purgation or curtailment of certain poetic faculties in order to achieve solitude or independence from a precursor. | Coleridge’s later poems, like “Dejection: An Ode,” reflect a self-limiting move to distance himself from the overwhelming influence of Milton and Wordsworth. |
| Apophrades | The “return of the dead,” where the later poet’s work seems to be haunted by the presence of the precursor’s influence. | Bloom interprets Coleridge’s late fragments, such as “Limbo,” as haunted by Milton’s influence, marking Coleridge’s inability to escape it. |
| Organic Analogue | The belief that a work of art grows naturally and organically, without external influence, like a living organism. | Bloom critiques Coleridge’s reliance on this concept, arguing that it limited his ability to engage fully with the creative struggle needed to overcome his predecessors. |
Contribution of “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom to Literary Theory/Theories
1. Influence Theory / Anxiety of Influence
- Contribution: Bloom’s essay is pivotal in advancing his theory of the “anxiety of influence”, which explores the psychological struggle that poets face when they engage with their literary predecessors. This concept revolutionized the understanding of how poets relate to their influences, emphasizing the tensions between originality and imitation.
- Reference: “Poetic influence, in this sense, is actually poetic misprision, a poet’s taking or doing amiss of a parent-poem.” Bloom argues that Coleridge’s career was shaped by his engagement with Milton, and this struggle led to both creative limitations and breakthroughs.
- Impact on Theory: Bloom’s model of influence is now a foundational concept in literary theory. It suggests that all literature is dialogical, meaning that later works are responses to and revisions of earlier ones. This idea challenges earlier notions that viewed literary works as self-contained or purely original.
- Contribution: Bloom’s analysis of Coleridge is deeply rooted in intertextuality, the idea that texts are interconnected and that no text exists in isolation. His discussion of how Coleridge’s poetry is a response to Milton’s influence highlights the complex web of literary connections that exist across time.
- Reference: “The meaning of a strong poem is another strong poem, a precursor’s poem which is being misinterpreted, revised, corrected, evaded, twisted askew…” Bloom suggests that Coleridge’s poetry can only be fully understood by examining its relationship to Milton’s work.
- Impact on Theory: This contribution reinforces the concept of dialogic relationships between texts (as later expanded by theorists like Julia Kristeva and Mikhail Bakhtin). Bloom’s insights into Coleridge emphasize how literary texts derive meaning through their engagement with previous works, shaping the broader study of intertextuality.
3. Romanticism and Poetic Legacy
- Contribution: Bloom redefines the relationship between Romanticism and its predecessors, particularly through Coleridge’s struggles with Milton. He asserts that the central task of the Romantic poet was to humanize the Miltonic Sublime, yet Coleridge, unlike Blake or Wordsworth, was overwhelmed by the grandeur of Milton.
- Reference: “Milton’s greatness is purchased at the cost of something dear to Coleridge, a principle of difference.” Bloom shows how Coleridge’s poetic identity was formed and constrained by Milton’s shadow.
- Impact on Theory: Bloom’s reading reshapes how scholars understand Romanticism. Instead of seeing Romantic poets as merely reacting against Enlightenment ideas or creating in isolation, Bloom highlights their deep, anxious engagement with their literary ancestors, which enriches the understanding of Romantic intertextuality and continuity within literary traditions.
4. Revisionary Ratios / Creative Struggle
- Contribution: Bloom introduces his revisionary ratios, six stages in which poets engage with and revise their predecessors. These include clinamen (swerve), tessera (completion), kenosis (emptying), daemonization, askesis (self-purgation), and apophrades (return of the dead).
- Reference: “These are six revisionary ratios, and I think they can be observed, usually in cyclic appearance, in the life’s work of every Post-Enlightenment strong poet…” Bloom identifies Coleridge’s use of kenosis in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” where he humbles himself by revising Milton’s grand narrative of sin and disobedience.
- Impact on Theory: This theoretical framework offers a structured approach to understanding how poets engage with influence. It has been widely influential in the study of literary inheritance and innovation, helping scholars trace how poets revise and transform their precursors’ work.
5. Organic Analogue and its Critique
- Contribution: Bloom critiques Coleridge’s adherence to the Organic Analogue, the belief that poems grow naturally from within like living organisms. While Coleridge viewed this as central to his creative process, Bloom and others argue that this concept inhibited Coleridge from fully realizing his creative potential.
- Reference: “The Organic Analogue… appealed so overwhelmingly to Coleridge because it seemed to preclude the anxiety of influence.”
- Impact on Theory: This critique of the organic theory of creation challenges idealistic notions of natural, effortless artistic creation. Bloom’s argument suggests that the true creative process involves struggle, revision, and conscious engagement with external influences rather than natural growth alone.
6. Romantic Sublime and Counter-Sublime
- Contribution: Bloom explores the Romantic poet’s relationship to the Sublime, particularly how Coleridge’s attempt to humanize the Sublime faltered. Bloom contrasts Coleridge’s failures with the successful humanization of the Sublime in poets like Blake and Wordsworth.
- Reference: “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel” represent Coleridge’s attempt at a Counter-Sublime, wherein he engaged with darker, daemonic forces, but ultimately failed to sustain this engagement.
- Impact on Theory: This concept of the Counter-Sublime offers a new way to understand the Romantic poet’s struggle with the overwhelming grandeur of the Sublime, adding nuance to the study of Romantic aesthetics and the psychological dimensions of poetic creation.
Examples of Critiques Through “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom
| Literary Work | Author | Critique Through “The Anxiety of Influence” | Explanation |
| “Paradise Lost” | John Milton | Coleridge is haunted by Milton’s overwhelming influence, which stifles his own poetic ambition. | Milton represents the pinnacle of the Sublime, and Coleridge’s admiration and envy for Milton inhibit him from fully realizing his own potential as a strong poet. |
| “The Prelude” | William Wordsworth | Coleridge struggles to match Wordsworth’s poetic achievements, resulting in both admiration and creative paralysis. | Wordsworth serves as both friend and rival. Coleridge seeks to revise and respond to Wordsworth’s greatness, especially regarding the themes of nature and the self. |
| “Frost at Midnight” | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | This poem represents Coleridge’s clinamen (swerve) away from Milton by softening and domesticating the Miltonic Sublime. | Instead of confronting Milton directly, Coleridge finds his own voice by focusing on personal and domestic themes, avoiding Milton’s grand, cosmic vision. |
| “Kubla Khan” | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Coleridge engages with the Counter-Sublime through daemonic and visionary forces but fails to sustain this revisionary step. | In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge attempts to counteract Milton’s influence by invoking daemonic powers, but his retreat from full engagement reveals his creative anxiety. |
Summary:
This table illustrates how “The Anxiety of Influence” manifests in Coleridge’s relationship with Milton and Wordsworth, as well as his own works. Coleridge’s poetry reflects Bloom’s revisionary steps, such as clinamen (a swerve from Milton in “Frost at Midnight”) and daemonization (in “Kubla Khan”). These critiques highlight the tension between admiration for poetic precursors and the struggle for creative independence.
Criticism Against “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom
· Overemphasis on the Influence of Predecessors: Critics argue that Bloom’s theory places too much importance on the influence of earlier poets, reducing the autonomy of later poets like Coleridge. This limits the interpretation of their creativity as merely reactive rather than independent or innovative.
· Neglect of Historical and Social Context: Bloom’s approach tends to overlook the historical, social, and political contexts in which poets like Coleridge were writing. His psychological model of influence may ignore the broader factors that shaped Coleridge’s poetry and career.
· Undermines Coleridge’s Philosophical Contributions: Some critics claim that Bloom’s focus on Coleridge’s anxiety over Milton minimizes Coleridge’s significant contributions to philosophy, particularly in works like Biographia Literaria, where his originality and intellectual depth are evident.
· Limited View of Romanticism: Bloom’s theory might oversimplify Romanticism by framing it as a struggle against the legacy of Milton. This perspective may fail to capture the diversity of Romantic poetics and the different philosophical and aesthetic concerns that influenced poets like Coleridge.
· Psychological Reductionism: Critics have argued that Bloom’s theory reduces the creative process to a psychological struggle with influence, neglecting other aspects of poetic inspiration and the role of imagination, which were central to Coleridge’s own literary theory.
· Overreliance on Revisionary Ratios: Bloom’s six revisionary ratios (clinamen, tessera, kenosis, etc.) have been criticized as overly rigid and formulaic, forcing all poetic development into a predetermined pattern. This can sometimes obscure the unique aspects of Coleridge’s creative process.
· Inadequate Attention to Coleridge’s Later Work: Bloom’s focus on the early struggles of Coleridge with influence largely ignores his later philosophical writings and theological poetry, which some scholars believe show Coleridge moving beyond the anxieties that Bloom emphasizes.
Representative Quotations from “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom with Explanation
| Quotation | Explanation |
| “Coleridge could have been a strong poet… another mighty antagonist for the Great Spectre Milton.” | Bloom sets the stage for his analysis, arguing that Coleridge had the potential to rival Milton but was inhibited by the overpowering influence of Milton’s poetic legacy. |
| “Poetic influence, in this sense, is actually poetic misprision.” | This is the core of Bloom’s theory, suggesting that influence involves a creative misinterpretation of predecessor poets, where the later poet both revises and resists them. |
| “The meaning of a strong poem is another strong poem.” | Bloom argues that great poetry derives its meaning in dialogue with other great works, reinforcing his theory of influence and intertextuality. |
| “Milton’s greatness is purchased at the cost of something dear to Coleridge, a principle of difference.” | Bloom emphasizes how Milton’s influence overwhelmed Coleridge’s ability to establish his own unique poetic voice, leading to creative tension and struggle. |
| “That exaggerated inwardness is barren… it cheats the senses and the emotions of their triumph.” | Bloom, referencing Pater, critiques Coleridge’s tendency toward philosophical inwardness, which Pater saw as limiting his ability to express a full range of emotions in poetry. |
| “Coleridge’s Counter-Sublime, his answer to the anxiety of influence, in strong poets.” | Bloom introduces the idea of the “Counter-Sublime,” showing how Coleridge attempted to respond to the overwhelming Sublime of Milton by engaging with darker, daemonic forces. |
| “Frost at Midnight swerves away from Milton by softening him, by domesticating his style.” | Bloom uses clinamen, the idea of a “swerve,” to explain how Coleridge moved away from Milton’s grand themes, focusing on more personal, intimate settings in his poetry. |
| “Kubla Khan” represents Coleridge’s attempt to counteract Milton’s influence by invoking daemonic powers.” | Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” reflects Bloom’s concept of daemonization, where the poet interacts with otherworldly forces to challenge the influence of a powerful precursor. |
| “Coleridge had the potential of the strong poet, but declined the full process of developing into one.” | Bloom suggests that Coleridge, unlike Blake or Wordsworth, did not fully embrace the necessary struggles to become a “strong poet” and reach his highest creative potential. |
| “The Organic Analogue… appealed so overwhelmingly to Coleridge because it seemed to preclude the anxiety of influence.” | Bloom critiques Coleridge’s reliance on the Organic Analogue, arguing that this concept allowed him to avoid facing the creative tension posed by the anxiety of influence. |
Suggested Readings: “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence” by Harold Bloom
- Bloom, Harold. “Coleridge: The Anxiety of Influence.” Diacritics, vol. 2, no. 1, 1972, pp. 36–41. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/464923. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
- Polansky, Steve. “A Family Romance-Northrop Frye and Harold Bloom: A Study of Critical Influence.” Boundary 2, vol. 9, no. 2, 1981, pp. 227–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/303059. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
- Robinson, Daniel. “‘Work without Hope’: Anxiety and Embarrassment in Coleridge’s Sonnets.” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 39, no. 1, 2000, pp. 81–110. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/25601432. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
- Bloom, Harold. “Water Pater: The Intoxication of Belatedness.” Yale French Studies, no. 50, 1974, pp. 163–89. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2929474. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
- Bloom, Harold. “Antithetical Criticism: An Introduction.” Diacritics, vol. 1, no. 2, 1971, pp. 39–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/465081. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.