The correct answer is Samuel Taylor Coleridge (option 3) because the phrase "a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite ‘I AM’" is directly related to Coleridge's concept of poetic imagination.
Coleridge introduced a profound and philosophical distinction between the Primary Imagination and Secondary Imagination in his seminal work, Biographia Literaria (1817). In it, he describes Primary Imagination as "the living power and prime agent of all human perception, a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM." Here, the "infinite I AM" refers to God's act of creation, echoing the biblical I AM, a divine name for God.
In this framework:
The Primary Imagination is linked to universal, divine creativity — the way all human beings perceive the world as part of a divine creative act.
The Secondary Imagination, which is the poet's domain, involves conscious creation, transforming and recombining perceptions into new artistic forms.
This view of imagination as an echo of divine creation is distinctively Coleridgean and is not associated with the other poets listed. Hence, Coleridge is the correct answer.
Year-wise PYQs
