Samuel Taylor Coleridge Books

This is the Coleridge I thought I knew through his poetry. Holmes brings him to life in this first volume of Coleridge's early years. The book makes you wish you had known Coleridge personally and shared in his life. His life is complex and challenging and so it must have been for Holmes to research and write Coleridge's life. In fact, Holmes seems to have a special knowledge into the life of one of the greatest poets of the English language. This book gave me insights into Coleridge's works I had not had before. If you want to learn more about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, his life and his works, this is the book to read.

The general reader and the scholar should enjoy this book. Holmes does set Coleridge talking.

Don't miss Owen Barfield's WHAT COLERIDGE THOUGHT if you want to explore the matephysician.

If you think Coleridge was finished by 1804, think again. True, all his great poems had been written but an astonishing life of triumph and tragi-comedy lay ahead. "Coleridge, Darker Reflections" is the long-awaited second half of this award-winning biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It covers the period 1804-1834 - a time when, according to popular belief, Coleridge's fertile imagination had dried up and he faced a slippery slide to an opium-induced decline. But not according to the author Richard Holmes, described as "Our best post-war biographer". He is a superb story teller and unlike so many biographers before him, deeply in touch with his subject. His first volume, "Coleridge Early Visions" introduced the poet to a new generation of admirers (including myself who was fired into writing a play for children about the poet's early magical years). This wonderful book will surely establish STC as a troubled but gigantic genius of the 19th century. Holme's own genius is to show us Coleridge the man. "Always on the knife edge between tragedy and comedy" said Holmes at the London book launch this week (21st October 1998) Holmes has worked assiduously through STC's vast notebooks. Like his namesake, Sherlock, the author clearly enjoys the detection element of biography. His is a personal search for the man, his millieu and his place. Holmes retraces STC's footsteps around England - echoing the desperate perambulations of the wandering poet. Holmes tells this astonishing story at a cracking pace - he has the thriller-writer's gift for making you turn the page. We follow STC through his Malta years - a wonderful evocation of Coleridge's chaotic life. The years of tragic opium decline in London are brought to life (I challenge you not to cry) - and yet there are so many triumphs - the marvellous late poems that Holmes has championed in an earlier collection, the seminal lectures on Shakespeare, Coleridge the thinker and radical, Coleridge the father (not a very good one), the years of relative happiness in Highgate where we find Coleridge the guru. Above all is Coleridge the man. Holmes as only the greatest biographers can, brings his subject completely to life and shows us why Coleridge was such a tour de force in the Romantic movement and why Byron called Wordsworth "a fixed star" but Coleridge "a meteor". There is so much to love in this book - it is hard to know what to recommend. If you have never read a biography before, make this your first. If you think you are familiar with the life of STC, this book, so full of new discoveries and insights, will make you reassess the poet. Holmes is clearly enamoured of his subject. It is a book that will make you laugh out loud in places. You will see exactly why Charles Lamb said of his great friend "He is an archangel, damaged."

This treatment of Coleridge's early life is excellent in scope & detail; in fact, it won a prize. But its strength-- objectivity-- is its weakness. Holmes expresses no imaginitive sympathy for his subject. He writes about Romanticism with the detatchment of an entymologist examining a butterfly. And while he treats Coleridge's pathology in an overtly psychological manner, he fails to identify the pathologies he describes -- like a doctor who collects symptoms without making a diagnosis.

The result is an outstanding example of conventional literary biography, but one that is insensitive to growth, imagination, and mind in the act of making the mind -- or why Coleridge was passionate about them. Those interested in these must seek elsewhere, but this volume remains a good place to learn the facts of Coleridge's life, despite its dry prose.

Somehow Holmes produces scholarly biographies that make compulsive reading. He never fictionalizes or puts thoughts in his subjects' heads that he has no authority for - and yet he keeps us turning those pages. Is it the subjects he choses? Shelley and Coleridge both had strongly "plotted" lives. Coleridge married the sister of Southey's wife and fell in love with the sister of Wordsworth's wife. I liked his comment on Coleridge's father's predecessor in the the benefice of St Mary's Ottery.

Bertie Wooster can sing the latest Broadway melody while he scrub brushes his back, but I prefer reading poetry aloud in my acoustically-correct, ceramic-tiled bath. And I've discovered the perfect book for it: Dover's Thrift Edition of Great Sonnets.

It is from this small volume that I've learned that the world is charged with the grandeur of God ("God's Grandeur," Hopkins), that lust in action is a waste of shame ("Th' Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame," Shakespeare), and that listening to my lover's breathing while pillowed upon her breast beats looking at that lone, cold, bright and steadfast star any old day ("Bright Star," Keats).

And that's not all. This thin volume of sonnets is chock-full of other such keen observations.

For example, how does Wordsworth ("Surprised by Joy") manage to convey so economically that fleeting feeling of joy accidentally experienced by a man mourning the death of a loved one, that is immediately followed by his feeling of guilt for having felt it, which makes us feel how quickly times passes?

How does Archibald MacLeish reduce a cataclysmic event as large as the end of the world into so few choice words that when the circus big top blows off you feel as if the top of your head has blown off with it? ("The End of the World")

How can someone say so much in so few lines and so few words? Fourteen lines to be exact, with five strong beats or stresses per line-no more and no less-and a very exacting rhyme scheme. I don't know. I'm usually given to such wordiness that it would take me a warehouse the size of a state university filled with three-ring binders to tell you, and I still couldn't begin to touch the truth of it. However, that poets can do it never ceases to astonish me.

What's more, should my dog-eared Dover thrift edition ever fall by accident into the tub, I can cheaply replace it.

This is yet another great value produced by Dover publication. For a small amount of money one receives ' treasures' that can help sustain one throughout one's lifetime. There are ' immortal poems' in this collection including many of the greatest sonnets ever written , sonnets by Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, Hopkins, the greatest masters of the form.
I myself came to know many of these sonnets in popular editions by other publishers, editions which have commentary these 'Dover Thrifts' lack. But the poetry is here, and much of it is real food for the soul.
The collection raises the question why it is that so much great English poetry has been written in this particular form- a question I do not really have the answer to.

this isn't an exhaustive collection of sonnets, nor a serious study. it is simply what it is: a short collection of sonnets that can be purchased cheaply. there are many great sonnets not included and no contemporary sonnets. but it isn't meant to be anything more than what it is. and if you love the sonnet, it's a good collection.

I needed a little reference with sonnet examples.
This fit the bill, and had some savory treats as well.
I am a bit time-greedy with my poetry reading, and a sonnet
is a fantastic way to get some of the best Shakespeare,
Shelley, Longfellow, Hardy, Frost, etc. distilled down
to a minute, even reading slowly.
It's great to flick open to a page
and see some masterful language on a time budget.
If you have little time, or haven't read poetry
for a while, this great little tome is fresh
entertainment. Read Shakespeare sonnets aloud
to the missus, and you'll both be entertained.
The sonnet bites back at the sound-bite!
No batteries needed, no compatibility problems,
no cell-tower fade on the train.
I love little books.. Try some today!

A fine collection of sonnets, including many if not most of the most familiar ones. Eight from Shakespeare, four from E. Browning, four from Frost, four from Hopkins, four from Longfellow. For me at least, a more appealing collection than another I recently purchased.

i looked very forward to recieving this great book which in itself is great however I am immensely disappointed with the somewhat shabby treatment from Amazon.Upon recieving the book I found the 7/8 page moderately creased and bent,it appears through poor handling. I took this up with Amazon several weeks ago and still await their reply,you profess great service Amazon but fell a long way short here.

This is well worth having, not only because of the fine annotations but also the wonderful illustrations. Some annotations, for me, seem to get in the way of reading the textl; in this volume, the annotation serves as a wonderful supplemental guide to the text. I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

As well as the titular annotations this large book includes full-page reproductions of Doré's woodcuts and the older version of the poem. The typography and layout imitate that of the period.

You can read both versions of The Ancient Mariner online, of course; but this is not a book for first encounters. It is a book for a reader who has come to love and admire the poem, and wants to own an aesthetic object that is worthy of it.

A beautiful presentation of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

This is a very exhaustive presentation of the Rime. One heads up, though . . . this edition is not uniform in appearance and size with the other books in the "Annotated" series (i.e. The Annotated Alice, the Annotated Huckleberry Finn). It is larger and has a glossy cover.

I was lucky enough to find a 'new' copy of this book. It is wonderfully and appropriately illustrated, though not necessarily for children. I recommend this to fans of Coleridge, and to fans of eclectic books in general.

All right, you may not be terribly fond of Coleridge. Or you may think he was a poet-god. In either case, I recommend this pop-up version of the "drugged-out classic" (as a prof. of mine once called it) to everyone over the age of, say, 17. Bantock's imaginative use of the familiar pop-up genre, as well as his distinctive art style, accentuate the poetry perfectly. I'm still kicking myself for not buying that beaten-up copy I found in New York. This is definitely worth the search.

This little piece of art is beautifully illustrated with incredible paper engineering for the pop-ups. I was lucky enough to find it years ago in a used book store, still in almost-new condition, and I'm still enjoying it today. I have other pop-ups by Nick Bantock - the jabberwocky and the old lady who swallowed a fly - and they are all amazingly done, but this one is my favorite.

This is a sequel to Walker's Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland (1997). It covers what happened to Coleridge after he separated from the Wordsworth's on the third week.

Everything about these two books is a true pleasure and obvious labor of love. Not only is Carol Walker a skilled photographer, literary historian and writer, but a hiker and thorough researcher. The books are of real and lasting scholarly merit, they are very generous in what is included.

Most of the book is photos but the first 25 pages is a literary history of Coleridge and Wordsworth, and their relationship and falling out, and how that played into their trip to Scotland. It is entirely human and understandable and gets to the core of what is friendship.

The pictures in this book of Scotland's lakes, fields and mountains are breathtaking. Carol Walker follows Coleridge's 263 mile walking tour from over 200 years ago. Mostly color photos record all the sights along the way, and what sights they are. The text consists of a short but thorough history of the tour, and at the end pages from Coleridge's travel journal and letters written during his journey. There are very useful maps that pinpoint each place Coleridge past along the way. Books like this usually disappoint me because of the paucity of pictures. This book is a work of art with equal laurels earned by the author, the photographer and the book designer. It is one of those books you just love to hold and turn the pages. It is so obvious that everyone concerned with this project took great pride in their work. I have a personal library of 10,000 volumes. This is the single most beautiful book I own.

I love this CD set! Michael Sheen knows how to read a poem. I play this CD constantly and love it dearly!

I can hardly contain my enthusiasm at finding this title. The poets they chose for this collection couldn't have been more satisfying. The other reason I got it was that I had just discovered actor, Michael Sheen, who narrates. He has a truly, magnificent voice that gives me chills. As someone who has directed voice talent, and devours poetry, I can tell you that he is a very skilled reader. This title is good for people who are poetry snobs as well as people who haven't given classic poetry a real chance. Unfortunately, it is out-of-print, so I had to go through the arduous task of downloading it. This means that it comes without ANY information. I found that very frustrating. I wish that Naxos would re-release it and give Michael Sheen a fat contract to narrate at least 5 more of these!

This volume contains a whole host of poems by Coleridge which are not commonly read and known. The Coleridge most of us know is limited to a few great long- poems, "The Ancient Mariner" "Kubla Khan" "Christabel" and perhaps a half- dozen shorter poems.
This anthology enables the reader to broaden and deepen in the Coleridge oeuvre, and feel how wide and wonderous the world of this many-sided genius.

This edition has a purpose, and one that I subscribe to wholeheartedly. That purpose is `to transform Coleridge's reputation, and find him a new generation of readers'. One hundred and one poems, including thankfully many fragments, are selected. They include, obviously, The Ancient Mariner, Christabel and Kubla Khan, but also sonnets, other ballads, the Asra poems to Sara Hutchinson, nature poems, the late `confessional' poems, political, satirical and humorous poems, and even one prose item The Wanderings of Cain. The editor Richard Holmes is a writer and broadcaster but not apparently an academic, and to my way of thinking the edition is all the better for that. One thing that I looked for but did not find was the brilliant and amusing poem on the city of Cologne, but one can't have everything and I know it by heart anyway.

As far as my poets are concerned, I would far sooner be sorry than safe. When I was at school Coleridge took very much of a back seat to Wordsworth, who was obviously a much safer bet. One was given The Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan for study, and maybe Christabel too if one was lucky, but my impression always was that that was as much Coleridge as the English masters had read. Tennyson once said `I have the greatest command of English since Shakespeare, but to be sure I have nothing to say.' Leaving Milton aside as being a completely special phenomenon whose wonderful language was only just English by some extension of the term, I go along with the first part of that assessment. Between Shakespeare and Tennyson, still leaving Milton out of the frame, who would you say takes the next place for sheer command and virtuosity with the English language? The orthodoxy in my time was Keats, but my own vote goes to Coleridge. Housman himself, the very high priest of Wordsworth, said that the finest versification of the era was to be found `in the irregular and simple-seeming stanzas of The Ancient Mariner'. I don't dispute that, but if The Ancient Mariner has a rival in that respect it is none other than Christabel in my own view. Housman considered the audacious metrical experiment of Christabel to be unsuccessful, but while Housman's ear for language was preternaturally acute, his ear for music was dull, and an ear for music is needed to get the full value from Christabel. We find the lines

She kneels beneath the huge oak tree
And in silence prayeth she.
The lady sprang up suddenly,
The lovely lady Christabel!
It moaned as near as near can be,
But what it is she cannot tell.

The crucial line there is `The lovely lady Christabel'. It adds nothing to the sense, it has the function of marking time, measuring out a moment of startled horror, and in general Christabel, incomplete though it is, seems to me as notable an addition to the English language as it is to English literature. It is this experimental and unpredictable element in Coleridge that thrills me with him. Very properly, there are numerous of his fragments here, fascinating testimony to his out-of-the-way mental processes. The poets of that era took their social and historical role pretty seriously - Shelley pronounced poets to be `the unacknowledged legislators of the world', and Coleridge himself considered them to be no less than the elect who would unlock the mystery of the universe. Give or take most of that kind of thing, there is a real visionary element in Coleridge, and not only in the fragments, although I'm not so sure what kind of legislator he might have made.

The selections are subdivided into categories, something Coleridge was not too keen on, believing that a plain chronological sequence was the proper reflection of a poet's development. The editor sympathises with this view, but finds it simply not a realistic option, and I agree with him. His preface is very readable, less heavy going than many such, there is a short introductory section to each category of poems included, and there is a further note on each individual poem at the back. I hope this edition succeeds in what it is trying to do.

Coleridge is a writer/thinker whose own life and works, particularly the later ones, seem to defy the eye of future standard, especially in an age of slick convenience. He is looking for "the vast," does not ignore German idealism like so many other Brits, nor philology, and seeks the vast from the socio-political context of a well-booked, if ne'er-do-too-well, remote, clergy-trained, English townsman. Some chapters are almost unbearably (to our age) slow, but don't forget this was the era of the triple decker, and Coleridge's reading (as was his library) was varied and vast. In all it may serve best the reader who keeps STC's religious and political anachronisms in context without relinquishing their flavor. Although this is another one of those disappearing (if at times arcane) gems by dead, white, European males whom we are obliged to ignore these days, yet Coleridge's romanticism, honest pessimism, and philosophical searching will never be passe for the thoughtful. And inasmuch as this title includes some of his lesser known mature work, the rich surpise implicit in that description will happen, recurrently and rewardingly, on the thoughtful reader.

Of all of Coleridge's penetrating criticism of Shakespeare perhaps the most well- known is his analysis of the character of Hamlet. I quote the heart of it because it is simple pleasure to read this analysis of the great critic- creator on the master literary creator.

"In Hamlet he seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our meditation on the workings of our minds, - an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds. In Hamlet this balance is disturbed : his thoughts, and the images of his fancy, are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities. This character Shakspere places in circumstances, under which it is obliged to act on the spur of the moment :- Hamlet is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve. Thus it is that this tragedy presents a direct contrast to that of "Macbeth;" the one proceeds with the utmost slowness, the other with a crowded and breathless rapidity.

The effect of this overbalance of the imaginative power is beautifully illustrated in the everlasting broodings and superfluous "

Anyone who wishes to know what great literary criticism is should read and study this volume.

This book was well ahead of its time. A careful reading of recent Coleridge scholarship reveals that Taylor's work identified and illuminated those ideas of STC that would be most discussed at the end of the century.