Fancy and Imagination Imagination According to Coleridge, imagination is a unifying power.

Explanation: in this world everything has different shape and body, but everything has the same soul i.e. human, tree etc. Coleridge says that through this imaginative faculty, the artist enters into the soul of the object and thus the distinction between the subject, the artist, and the object is abolished. In other words, the knower and the known fuse together and in this wasy the reality is revealed. Kinds of Imagination Primary Imagination Before primary imagination there is sense perception: we perceive things through our sense, and thus a lot of sensation and impression are formed and stored in the unconscious of our mind. These sensation and impressions are in haphazard and distorted form. They are actually dead as the food that we eat. In the operation of primary imagination, these impression and sensations are brought into the conscious faculty of mind. Thus they remain no longer sensations and impressions, but they are turned into objects and things of which they first originated. So primary imagination is a creative faculty because the dead sensations and impressions are turned into objects and shapes, and these objects and shapes become a part of the consciou mind. Coleridge says that this kind of imagination is common to all human beings. Secondary Imagination Secondary imagination is a poetic vision. It is a poetic acitvity which dissolves, diffuses, dissipates the sensations and impressions in order to creat something new.

Explanation Secondary imagination is different from primary imagination in its operation. As I mentioned earlier that in the operation of primary imagination, the sensations and impressions are transformed into shapes and objects. Secondary imagination on the contrary transforms these impressions into idea what we call the immediate knowledge. Thus with this knowledge the duality between the subject and the onject is abolished, and the knower and the known fuse together. In other words the poets conscious becomes that of God and he sees the things as they really are. Fancy Vs. Imagintion Fancy is a faculty of memory which deals with fixities and definities. It reminds things from the memory and gives us the things which are already present. On the other hand, imagination is a creative faculty, it brings the poet closer to the reality and fuses the knower to the known. Fancy operates with the law of association: when we see one thing it reminds us of another and so on. Fancy selects, rejects and combines the things. It does not invent a new things, but discovers the existed things. Thus its truth is artifical; that of imagination is authentic. Every poem is a combination of fancy and imagination.