Everyman's Library Pocket Poets
3 total works
Towards the end of his life, Coleridge began to make new selections of his poetry by genre, and in this book Holmes follows his example, grouping the poetry not chronologically, as in most previous selections, but thematically and generically. The volume opens with 21 sonnets, nine Conversation Poems and six ballads; Love Poems, Confessional Poems, Hill Walking Poems, Visionary Fragments and finally Political Poems follow. Every poem is provided with a detailed critical and biographical note, which together, form a new survey of his work. In his general introduction, Holmes reviews Coleridges place in the Romantic movement, and in a short preface to each section, explains his originality and his imaginative genius in exploring traditional 18-century forms.
A few magical poems by Coleridge remain among the most celebrated works in the language: KUBLA KHAN, CHRISTABEL and - above all -THE ANCIENT MARINER. All are included in this volume, together with many other superb but lesser-known poems and a selected prose extracts from the BIOGRAPHIA LITERIA and the NOTEBOOKS which show that Coleridge was not only a major poet but also a great critic and prose writer.
Coleridge's Poems
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hale White, and James Dykes Campbell
Published 4 June 2009