How did Platonism influence the poetry of William Blake and Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

The influence of Platonism on the poetry of William Blake and Samuel Taylor Coleridge was largely mediated by the work of Thomas Taylor, a translator who promoted a militant, pagan form of Neoplatonism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.1

William Blake

In the poetry of William Blake, Neoplatonic symbolism is prevalent. Although Blake was initially influenced by Taylor’s pagan perspective, he eventually reconciled these ideas with his own unique interpretation of Christianity.1

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Platonism of Samuel Taylor Coleridge also derived from Taylor, though Coleridge possessed the ability to read original Platonic texts. Coleridge’s work reflects a deep concern with an underlying creative principle that unifies the human experience and the universe. His concept of the imagination served as an archetype of this unifying force, allowing him to reconcile intuitive, non-rational understanding with the organized thought required to perceive the material world. Through this reconciliation of opposites, Coleridge successfully integrated universal, ideal concepts with acute observations of sensory, particular details in his poetry and criticism.12