How did Samuel Taylor Coleridge define the role of imagination in poetry?

For Samuel Taylor Coleridge, imagination was the fundamental creative principle that unified human experience and the universe. In his seminal work, Biographia Literaria, he distinguished imagination from "fancy," arguing that while fancy is merely an associative, inferior faculty, imagination is the primary power of creativity.123

Coleridge defined imagination as the capacity to reconcile opposites, specifically integrating the universal with the particular, and the objective with the subjective. It serves as the archetype of a unifying force, bridging the human ability for intuitive, non-rational understanding with the capacity for logical, discriminating thought. By synthesizing these elements, imagination allows the poet to move beyond mere description, lifting the essential components of literature into conscious awareness. Ultimately, for Coleridge, this creative faculty was essential for achieving a harmonious union of emotion and thought in poetry.1