Though “Metrical Feet” conveys a light-hearted and loving tone throughout that might suggest a flippancy to the subject matter of poetic composition, the poem actually hints at much deeper notions of literary composition Coleridge held.
Perhaps due to Coleridge's fantastical imagination, proclivity to experimental forms, and itinerate life marred by addiction, some contemporary scholars have written dismissively on the usefulness of Coleridge’s perspective on literary composition and rhetoric (Veeder 20). Yet, to dismiss Coleridge’s philosophical views on composition is to also dismiss his large philosophical output and vast reading in the ideas of his day. In fact, throughout his life, Coleridge was not only a well-regarded public speaker and lecturer, but also a publisher of various philosophically inclined periodicals, such as his short-lived journal The Friend (ibid).
Surveying the poet’s large output of philosophical writing, for instance, Rex Veeder has argued that Coleridge possessed a well-developed view that the act of composing literature both creates a “habitual self” and also facilitates the development of knowledge necessary for individuals to understand themselves in society (21-3). For both social and religious reasons, Veeder notes, Coleridge believed that the act of writing was a “journey outward from the center of the self” that “embrace[s] diversity and bring[s] difference into harmony with the self” (ibid). At the same time, Coleridge deeply believed that knowledge of self and the world was produced through dialectic, a philosophical investigation into truth arising from a dialogue (25). Interestingly, although dialectics are typically understood to occur between two or more people, Coleridge saw the act of reading and writing as its own dialectic that could be integral to the development of one’s own identity.
This helps us to understand the implicit ideal Coleridge holds up for his son in “Metrical Feet.” The pre-condition for becoming a great poet and winning the love of “his Father above,” according to Coleridge, is to embody intellectual, emotional and moral ideals. Philosophically, Coleridge perceived the act of writing as a dialectical process that develops the self and allows one to understand themselves in relation to the world around them. This would be a fitting lesson for a boy, indeed.
“Metrical Feet”, then, is much like what Michael O’Neil has said of Coleridge’s “The Aeolian Harp”: it is both “the medium and vehicle of a [poetic] process, educating self, addressee, and reader” (84). While on a superficial level this is literally true—the poem actively seeks to educate its reader on poetic metrical terminology, for instance—on a subtler level “Metrical Feet” suggests that the poetic process facilitates a practical moral development of one’s identity and perception of the world.
