|
|
Thomas
Burnet
Thomas Burnet wrote The Sacred Theory of Earth first in Latin, then in
English, describing paradise, the flood, the burning of the world, and the
new heavens and earth that will be created after the Apocalypse. Hoping to make a poem
out of the book, as a "grand Miltonic romance," (Lowes 392), Coleridge made
notes toward that project:
Burnet's theoria telluris translated into Blank Verse, the original at the
bottom of the page. (Archiv, p. 344)
Burnet/de montibus in English Blank Verse (Archiv p. 350)
But those projects never took shape. Still, the grandiosity of the vision, covering
the beginning, end, and rebirth of the world, clearly appealed
to Coleridge.
In his Biographia Literaria, Coleridge compares Burnet's book to the
writings of Plato, saying they both "furnish undeniable proofs that poetry
of the highest kind may exist without meter." (II, 11).
And in his Notes, Coleridge praises Burnet's work for its "Tartarean fury
and turbulence." (Notes, Theological, Political, and Miscellaneous.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Edited by Rev.
Derwent Coleridge. London, 1853.)
Lowes believes that Burnet's imagery contributed to the description of the
sun hanging over the stranded ship in The Ancient Mariner, a little before
Kubla Khan.
Given this thicket of evidence that Coleridge read and relished Burnet, we
should not be surprised if Coleridge had a clear memory of images suggested
by the Sacred Theory.
Sources: Thomas Burnet, Telluris Theoria Sacra…Libri duo priores de Diluvio et
Paradiso, London, 1681; Libri duo posteriores de Conflagratione Mundi, et de
Futuro Rerum Statu, London, 1689. |
 Other sources
William Bartram
|