How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination

Q. How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the greatest English Romantic poets and critics, discussed the concepts of Fancy and Imagination in his famous critical work “Biographia Literaria” (1817). This distinction is one of the most important contributions of Coleridge to English literary criticism. His ideas were influenced by earlier philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and poets like Wordsworth, but Coleridge developed them into an original theory of the creative mind. How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination?

Table of Contents

1. Background

During the 18th century, English poets and critics often used the words imagination and fancy as if they meant the same thing — the mental power of creating images. For example, Dryden and Addison used both terms loosely to refer to the ability to invent or picture things not present to the senses.

However, Coleridge gave these two terms a new and deeper meaning. For him, imagination was not merely a decorative or inventive power but the very essence of poetic creation, while fancy was something mechanical and secondary. How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination?

2. The Source: Biographia Literaria (Chapter XIII)

In Chapter XIII of “Biographia Literaria”, Coleridge presents his famous distinction. He divides the human creative power into three forms:

Primary Imagination
Secondary Imagination
Fancy

Each of these represents a different level of mental activity.

3. Primary Imagination

Coleridge defines Primary Imagination as “the living power and prime agent of all human perception.”
In simple terms, it is the basic power of the human mind to perceive the world. When we see, hear, or sense something, the mind does not just receive the image passively; it actively shapes and organizes it.

For example, when we look at a tree, our eyes see shapes and colors, but it is the imagination that unites these sensations into the idea of “a tree.”

Thus, the primary imagination is universal — every human being has it. It is not a poetic faculty, but the normal functioning of the mind through which we make sense of the world.

Coleridge calls it a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.
This means that just as God creates the world, human beings “re-create” it in their perception. How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination?

4. Secondary Imagination

The Secondary Imagination is the poetic imagination, the higher form of creative power.
Coleridge says it is an echo of the primary imagination, but it dissolves, diffuses, and dissipates in order to recreate.

That is, the poet’s imagination breaks down the raw material of sense and experience, transforms it, and reshapes it into new and living forms.

For example, when Wordsworth looks at a daffodil, he doesn’t merely describe it. He transforms his emotional experience into the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.”
That act of transforming reality into something more beautiful and meaningful is the work of secondary imagination.

In short:

Primary Imagination: perceives reality.
Secondary Imagination: re-creates reality in the mind of the artist.

The secondary imagination is thus creative, unifying, and vital. It fuses thought and feeling, reason and emotion, into one harmonious act. It is the faculty that creates art, poetry, and religion — the highest form of human expression. How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination?

5. Fancy

In contrast to imagination, Fancy is a lower and mechanical faculty.
Coleridge defines fancy as “the mode of memory emancipated from the order of time and space.”

In simple words, fancy takes things that already exist and rearranges them in new combinations, but it does not create anything truly new.

Fancy works by association — it joins ideas based on resemblance or contrast.
It is like a craftsman who assembles existing pieces to form a pattern, but cannot give them new life.

For example, a poet who uses many decorative similes or metaphors — comparing eyes to stars, cheeks to roses, etc. — may show fancy but not imagination. Fancy is playful and light, but not deep or spiritual.

6. Key Differences Between Fancy and Imagination

Aspect	Imagination	Fancy
Nature	Vital, organic, and creative	Mechanical and decorative
Power	Fuses ideas into a living whole	Assembles images by association
Function	Creates new forms and meanings	Rearranges existing materials
Depth	Deep, spiritual, and unifying	Superficial and external
Example in Poetry	Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” (imaginative vision of nature and spirit)	Light verses or witty conceits of poets like Pope

Thus, imagination is synthetic and organic, while fancy is analytic and mechanical.

7. The Philosophical Meaning

Coleridge’s theory is not only about poetry but also about the nature of human thought.
He believed that imagination reflects the divine creative power. Just as God creates the world out of nothing, the human mind creates unity out of chaos.

The imagination thus becomes a spiritual and moral faculty — the power that perceives truth and beauty. Fancy, on the other hand, remains within the limits of ordinary perception and memory.

This distinction made Coleridge’s criticism metaphysical and idealistic, differing from the rational, rule-based criticism of the earlier 18th century.

8. Influence on Romanticism

Coleridge’s theory of imagination deeply influenced Romantic literature and poetic theory.
For the Romantics, imagination was not just a tool for making verses — it was the very essence of life and art.

Wordsworth called imagination “the soul that sees into the life of things.”
Shelley in his “Defence of Poetry” described it as the power of sympathy and moral insight.
Keats expressed it through his idea of “negative capability,” the ability to merge with beauty and truth.

Coleridge’s clear distinction helped critics understand why Romantic poetry feels alive and spiritual, while earlier poetry often seems artificial or decorative.

9. Examples in Coleridge’s Own Poetry

In Coleridge’s own poems, we can see the operation of imagination clearly.

In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the imagination transforms a story of guilt and punishment into a profound spiritual journey. The natural and supernatural merge into one symbolic vision.
In “Kubla Khan,” the poem itself becomes a symbol of the creative process — the poet creates a “pleasure-dome” out of imagination.

In both poems, fancy may help in ornamentation, but imagination gives them soul and unity.

10. Critical Evaluation

Coleridge’s distinction between fancy and imagination revolutionized English criticism.
Before him, critics judged poetry by its correctness of form or moral teaching. After him, poetry was valued for its creative and spiritual power.

His idea that imagination is a “repetition of the divine act of creation” lifted art from imitation to creation — from copying nature to expressing truth.

However, some later critics found his terminology difficult or vague.
For instance:

The difference between primary and secondary imagination is subtle and sometimes overlaps.
Fancy, though described as inferior, still has artistic importance in wit and humor.

Yet, the essence of his theory remains powerful — that the poet is not a decorator but a creator. How does Coleridge deal with the distinction between Fancy and Imagination?

11. Comparison with Other Theories

Before Coleridge, Aristotle saw poetry as imitation (mimesis), though a noble one.
But Coleridge’s imagination is not imitation at all — it is creation from within.

Similarly, Kant had spoken of imagination as a synthesizing faculty between sense and understanding. Coleridge built upon this idea but gave it a spiritual dimension — a divine spark in the human mind.

12. Legacy

Coleridge’s theory shaped later literary criticism:

It inspired Romantic poets to explore inner experience and nature’s spirit.
It influenced symbolist and modernist writers (like Yeats and Eliot) who saw poetry as a revelation of truth.
It helped establish psychological criticism, exploring how the mind creates meaning.

Even today, the distinction between imagination and fancy helps critics understand the difference between deep, original art and shallow ornamentation.

13. Conclusion

Coleridge’s distinction between Fancy and Imagination marks a turning point in literary thought.
He raised imagination from a simple act of picturing to a divine creative faculty, the power that unites reason, emotion, and spirit. Fancy, though graceful and witty, remains secondary — a tool of embellishment, not creation.

Through this distinction, Coleridge gave poetry a new dignity. The poet, for him, is not a mirror reflecting the world, but a lamp illuminating it from within.

Thus, the difference between fancy and imagination is not just one of degree but of nature: