" However, refutes Ernest Coleridge, whatever may be said about Coleridge for or against, as an "inventor of harmonies," his self-criticism was the most stern of all. He continually wrote and rewrote his work in order "discover and reveal the hidden springs, the thoughts and passions of the artificer."
One would be wrong to believe that it was only his family that thought his work excellent. Many later critics have been just as positive about his writings. Suther (5) said, for example, that Coleridge's greatness was due to his "dogged refusal to pretend that the problems and paradoxes of human life are any less vast, ineffable, and terrifying than his intuition revealed to him they were." In his efforts to come to terms with life using words such as "tragedy," "sin," "guilt," "redemption," "grace," "Reason," "inspiration," and "God," to describe phenomena he was helping others deal with the paradoxes that they faced in their own lives.
Similarly, Taylor wrote that Coleridge was "among the most purposeful practitioners of verse as verse in his era." Along with his deep involvement with a changing political situation and with philosophical and religious debates, he greatly enjoyed the specifics of willed poetic craftsmanship and was quick to critique in his own writings and in that of others lapses in sound, whether from haste to express opinions however true or false, training, natively faulty sense of rhythm or weight of vowels, or erroneous perceptions about an equivalence of poetry and prose. "Amid his many ardent defenses -- of the sanctity of the human soul, of the trinity, of the clerisy, and of method -- his defense of the ancient...
Others, like his estranged friend Wordsworth are cited much more often. Many scholars believe that it is because he wrote very little during his life time and/or had a large gap between his works.
He wrote the Ancient Mariner by the time he was twenty-five and then never succeeded in finishing another work on the same scale throughout a long lifetime. What other well-known writer has done this? As Suther notes (3): Although someone may quarrel with a comment that Coleridge's philosophical works are more interesting than those of any other nineteenth-century English writer, it is true as well that all of his immense scholarship and fresh creative perceptions did not issue in a "work" -- much less in a "system" (although Coleridge never ceased to lament his failure to establish "his system").
Thus, concludes Suther, we have a man of first promise both as poet and as philosopher, who, though he worked hard through a long lifetime fell dramatically short of that promise, the flow of his poetic inspiration drying up almost suddenly, his philosophy never coming to anything like a definitive form, a prey throughout his life to serious depression, a "confirmed" opium addict, and, in the eyes of some of his ablest friends and of numerous subsequent critics, a failure -- in spite of his achievements -- because of his promise
References
Coleridge, E.H. (1912). The Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. London: Henry Frowde.
Jackson, J.R. (1995). Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Critical Heritage. Volume: 1
London: Routledge.
Suther, M. (1960) the Dark Night of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Contributors: Marshall New York: Columbia University Press.
Taylor, a. (2001). Coleridge and the Pleasures of Verse. Contributors: Anya Taylor - Studies in Romanticism.…
Samuel Taylor Coleridge The cliched image of the Romantic poet is of a solitary tortured genius; it is ironic that the work of the poets collectively regarded as the 'Romantic School' is marked by collective and co-operative effort as much as by individual creativity. For none of the great figures of Romantic poetry is this so true as it is for Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The first-rate poetic output of this extraordinary,
It is interesting, however, that Coleridge chose to describe two women in a homoerotic situation since lesbianism was practically unheard of at the time whereas male homosexuality, though illegal, was at least recognized. It's even more interesting in the face of Coleridge's history of unease with women (Grossberg 152). The two main characters in this piece are Christabel and Geraldine. Geraldine's appearance coincides with a mysterious sound that is never
His belief that literature is a magical blend of thought and emotion is at the very heart of his greatest works, in which the unreal is often made to seem real. Samuel Taylor Coleridge effectively freed British (and other) poetry from its 18th century Neo-classical constraints, allowing the poetic (and receptive) imagination to roam free. Works Cited Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Kublai Khan. In The Portable Coleridge, I.A. Richards Ed.). New York: Penguin, 1987.
Also, after realizing that the killing of the albatross was crime, the Mariner is forced to roam the seas "upon the rotting deck" of the ship where the "dead men lay" (Part IV, lines 19-20). This description is very symbolic, for it means that the Mariner and his crew mates are all doomed to roam the seas as dead men because of the Mariner's killing of the albatross. Although Coleridge's
Wordsworth and Coleridge's Response To Nature Nature has played an important role in inspiring poets throughout time and William Wordsworth's involvement in discussing this topic is especially intriguing, considering the strong connection that the poet seems to have with the natural world. By taking into account Samuel Taylor Coleridge's perspective on Wordsworth's writings, one can gain a more complex understanding concerning the latter's feelings with regard to the environment. Wordsworth practically
Love According to Coleridge and Shelley The Rime of the Ancient Mariner In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Coleridge uses the tale of an old sailor to reveal what love is all about. In this story, The Mariner and his crew travel around the world and then head back to England. Coleridge begins the story as an old sailor approaches three young men headed for a wedding celebration
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