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William H. Harris
Department of English, University of Tennessee
October 1998
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Fixed Eyes and Moving Minds:
Berkeley's New Theory of
Vision and Romantic Poetry
George Berkeley's Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision signified
monumental progress in the enlightenment-era investigation of visual perception,
and his work resonates in modern-day philosophical and psychological studies
of sight-mind relationships. My paper demonstrates the influence
of eighteenth-century developments in the science of perception (especially
by Berkeley) on the early poetry of Coleridge and Wordsworth. While
many are aware of the influence of Berkeley's idealism/immaterialism on
Coleridge and Wordsworth, little attention has been given to the correspondence
between Romantic poetry and Berkeley's revolutionary claims about the dynamics
of human perception.
Inspired by Coleridge's declaration that Berkeley's Essay was
"a masterpiece of analytical reasoning," my study focuses on Berkeley's
assertions that sight perception depends on the brain's memories of past
experience, particularly experience of moving through space. The
paper argues that these new insights helped to direct the poetic technique
of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Specifically, developments in perception
theory partially account for the thorough and detailed awareness of motion
and sight-lines that distinguishes much Romantic poetry.
Will Harris is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee,
where he also teaches. Presently he is working on his dissertation,
which focuses on the representations and significance of time in the poetry
of Wordsworth and Coleridge.