Klopstock’s <i>Kürze</i> and Its Impact on Coleridge’s Aesthetic Thought

This study examines the 1798 conversation between Klopstock and Coleridge, focusing on the concepts of Kürze (brevity, vivacity) and German prefix-verbs, which shaped Klopstock’s poetic practice and theory. Although Coleridge initially misinterpreted Kürze as a quantitative concept pertaining to the number of syllables, words, or verses, its influence persisted in his later theories of imagination and the symbol in Biographia Literaria. Upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that Coleridge’s interpretation is more aligned with Klopstock’s views than initially thought. For Klopstock, Kürze holistically conditioned all aspects of poetic expression, thereby determining the cognitive and emotional effect of poetry as a whole. Both Kürze and the symbol challenge empiricist epistemology by redefining the relationship between poetry and cognition. Rather than tracing a direct genealogical link, this study contextualizes their ideas within the linguistic debates of their time, revealing a functional equivalence that connects Klopstock’s Kürze to Coleridge’s symbol. In doing so, the study offers new insights into Coleridge’s intellectual development and his pursuit of a distinct conceptual language for his emerging theory of imagination.