ABSTRACT
A poem contains the same elements as a prose composition', said Coleridge in beginning his discussion of metre, 'the difference therefore must consist in a different combination of them, in consequence of a different object being proposed'. The first step towards remedying these stultifying confusions, which afflict almost all discussion of rhythm and metre, is to reflect carefully upon what they may mean by a word. Among them will be found Poem, Rhythm, and Thought, to mention three only. A mastery of the paradigm also allows us to translate into one another some differing accounts of Fancy and Imagination. In saying that 'the sense of musical delight, with the power of producing it, is a gift of the imagination', Coleridge set aside the conventional conception to restore a wholeness to pepole view of the act of speech, a wholeness they are in endless danger of overlooking, for reasons that a study of the ambiguity of the word makes plain.
