Primary Imagination :-  It is the faculty by which we perceive the world around us. It is merely the power of receiving impressions of the external through our senses. It perceives objects both in their parts and as a whole. It is an involuntary act of the mind. The human mind receives impressions and sensation from the outside world, unconsciously and involuntarily it imposes some sort of order on those impressions, reduces them to size and shape, so that the mind is able to form a clear image of the outside world. It is in this way that clear and coherent perception becomes possible. Coleridge describes primary imagination as the ¡°mysterious power¡± which can extract ¡°hidden ideas and meanings¡± from objective data.

Secondary Imagination :- The primary imagination is universal and possessed by all. The secondary imagination makes artistic creation possible. It requires an effort of the will and conscious effort.  It works upon what is perceived by the primary imagination ; it¡¯s raw materials are the sensations and impressions supplied to it by the primary imagination.  It selects and orders the raw materials and reshapes and remodels it into objects of beauty. It is ¡®ensemplastic¡¯ , and it ¡®dissolves, diffuses and dissipates, in order to create.¡¯ The secondary imagination is at the root of all poetic activity. It is the power which reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite and discordant qualities  and Coleridge calls it a magical synthetic power. It fuses the various faculties of the soul , subjective with objective, the human mind with external nature, the spiritual with the physical or material.

The primary and secondary imagination do not differ from each other in kind . The difference is only of degree. The secondary imagination is more active, more conscious and more voluntary than the primary one.