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Chapter 3 - A Geometric Frame of Mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2023

Ann C. Colley
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Buffalo
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Summary

While trudging through the landscape of his rambles, Coleridge filled his notebooks with reference to and drawings of geometric figures. The question arises: Given his fascination with the uncultivated, irregular wild hills and rivers of his rambles, why would he utilize the fixed, abstracted geometric idiom removed from time? This chapter addresses this seeming contradiction by suggesting that his attraction to the geometric figure in his landscape descriptions is neither perplexing nor inconsistent but rather an expression of his immersion in an environment that nurtured a geometric frame of mind and believed in a mathematical ordering of the entire universe. Beginning with his mathematical training both at Christ’s Hospital School and at the University of Cambridge, Coleridge inherited a cultural conviction that one should take Euclid seriously. Furthermore, this training sharpened his powers of attention, abstraction, and an a priori intuition. Ultimately, his attachment to a geometric perspective did not distract him from his attraction to the sensuous movements, sounds, and colors of his natural surroundings. He intertwined them both and in so doing tempered his contemporaries’ way of thinking that separated the two modes of perception.

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Chapter
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Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom
Walking with Euclid
, pp. 78 - 113
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • A Geometric Frame of Mind
  • Ann C. Colley, State University of New York, Buffalo
  • Book: Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom
  • Online publication: 23 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009271769.004
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  • A Geometric Frame of Mind
  • Ann C. Colley, State University of New York, Buffalo
  • Book: Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom
  • Online publication: 23 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009271769.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Geometric Frame of Mind
  • Ann C. Colley, State University of New York, Buffalo
  • Book: Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom
  • Online publication: 23 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009271769.004
Available formats
×