First published 1796
Samuel Taylor Coleridge created some of English literature's most vivid and strange poetry during the Romantic period. This collection gathers his complete published works alongside unpublished manuscripts, arranged by when he wrote them. Readers encounter the cursed sailor of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" who must tell his tale to wedding guests. They visit the pleasure dome of "Kubla Khan," born from an opium dream. The unfinished medieval story "Christabel" draws readers into its mysterious world. Coleridge's conversation poems like "Frost at Midnight" capture quiet moments of reflection, while "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" turns a garden accident into meditation. His later poems "Youth and Age" and "Constancy to an Ideal Object" wrestle with growing older and losing love. The collection shows how Coleridge's partnership with William Wordsworth sparked his most creative period. His work moves from nightmarish visions to gentle observations of nature and memory. The poems reveal a mind that found the extraordinary within ordinary moments and transformed personal experience into lasting art.
Genres: classic-literature, british-literature, poetry, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: transformation, unreliable-narrator
Period: Romantic Period
656 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics