'The organic form, on the other hand, is innate; it shapes, as it develops, itself from within, and the fulness of its development is one and the same with the perfection of its outward form. Such as the life is, such is the form.'
What I want to know is how you actually write a poem according to this precept? The poem 'develops itself from within'. How? How do you start? I start a poem with a line or two that popped into my head. Where did they pop from? Let's leave that aside. But how does Coleridge go at it. Does he meditate? Fall into a trance like the guy in Kubla Khan. He says that the lines of Kubla Khan came to him in a dream? Has any one of you found a poem coming in this way. Did you, if you did, dream it all at once, or in bits.
Is Coleridge's search for organic form the reason why he didn't write much poetry though reams and reams of prose?
It seems to me that this sort of thing is great for producing criticism but not so great for producing poems. It seems to me that Charles Olsen is the Jackson Pollock of poetry. Throw it at the wall and see what sticks.
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