According to Coleridge, Imagination has two forms, primary and secondary, primary imagination is merely the power of receiving impressions of the external world through the senses. It is the power of perceiving the objects of sense, both in their parts and as a whole. The primary imagination is universal, it is possessed by all.

The secondary imagination, on the other hand, may be possessed by others also but it is the peculiar and distinctive of the artist. It requires an effort of the will, volition and conscious effort. It works upon what is perceived by the primary imagination; its raw material is the sensations and impressions supplied to it by the primary imagination.