Organic form

In romantic literature, a work has organic form if the structure has originated from the materials and subjects used by the author. Using the organic metaphor, the structure is seen to grow as a plant. It stands in contrast to a mechanical form, a work which has been produced in accordance with artificial rules. The lack of rules in Shakespeare's works led some critics to claim that they lacked form; Samuel Taylor Coleridge leapt to his defence with the concept of organic form.

Coleridge, an English poet, philosopher, literary critic, and founder of the Romantic movement, suggested that the concept of organic form meant that a poem or literary piece was shaped, rather than structured, from within. The use of the form allowed a piece to uniquely develop itself as it unfolded, and ultimately revealed an emphasis on the whole outcome of the piece, including the connections of each development to each other. In contrast to the more mechanical processes and rules which many critics believed were necessary for the formation of poetry and works, S.T. Coleridge determined that a more subconscious approach was possible through the, ‘‘imagination of the artist’’ whereby the outcome is an organic form, where ‘‘content and form have coalesced and fused.’’

Coleridge's explanation can be found in Vol. 2 of Twentieth Century Literature in English

In R.A. Foake’s Introduction to "Coleridge’s criticism of Shakespeare: a selection", he defines Coleridge’s defense of Shakespeare’s works as ‘’an act of sympathetic imagination, to enter into the spirit of each work, to reveal its inner organizing principle, and to show how Shakespeare, properly understood, was always in control and exercising judgement,’’

Regarding Shakespeare’s much criticized erratic form, Coleridge further imposed the possibilities of organic form:

Following on from Coleridge’s 18th Century ideas on organic form, was Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of the most revered poets of the Victorian era Hopkins introduced the terms “inscape” and “instress”. “Inscape” was the core components in individual objects, allowing him to then home in on its relation to other objects and their perception as a whole. “Instress” focussed on the assimilating the immediate apperception and the sensory processes of perception .

...
Wikipedia