The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Author), William Keach (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: October 1, 1997

One of the major figures of English Romanticism, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) created works of remarkable diversity and imaginative genius. The period of his creative friendship with William Wordsworth inspired some of Coleridge's best-known poems, from the nightmarish vision of the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and the opium-inspired "Kubla Khan" to the sombre passion of "Dejection: An Ode" and the medieval ballad "Christabel". His meditative 'conversation' poems, such as "Frost at Midnight" and "This Lime-Tree Bower Mr Prison", reflect on remembrance and solitude, while late works, such as "Youth and Age" and "Constancy to an Ideal Object", are haunting meditations on mortality and lost love.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) was one of the first figures of the Romantic movement, and a poet, philosopher and critic. His close friendship with Dorothy and William Wordsworth, whom he met in 1797, led to the publication of the "Lyrical Ballads", which marked a conscious break with poetic tradition and includes one of Coleridge's most famous poems, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". William Keach is Professor of English at Brown University in Rhode Island. He has published many books and articles on Renaissance and Romantic literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140423532
• ISBN-13: 978-0140423532
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Verses from a friend., March 5, 2000

By 

Sergio Flores (Orange, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This Penguin collection compares very well with my own Oxford Edition of 1935, and I particularly like the fact that the price is reasonable, so more people may decide to buy the book instead of just getting the two or three poems available in a typical anthology. Samuel Taylor Coleridge suffered a lot during his life: unrequited love, drug addiction, inferiority complex. Yet what a wonderful legacy for all of us fortunate enough to read his verses. My favorite poem is Christabel and I can't help picture the entire poem in my mind as if it were a gothic-horror film. The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner is his most famous work, but all of his other great and not-so great works are here, too: Dejection, an Ode; To Mathilda Betham from a Stranger; Kubla Khan; Ode to the Departing Year; The Nightingale; A Stranger Minstrel, etc. Coleridge represents the departure from the Neo-Classic and the introduction to the Romantic. He and his friend Wordsworth are pivotal in achieving that change. His religious poems may seem odd to a modern reader, but mysticism was nothing new back then, and the man was trying to make sense of his very difficult life, anchoring his hopes in his religion. Anyone who purchases, or borrows, this book, must know that hundreds of pages worth of poetry tell us a lot about the poet, since we are reading his life's work. Excellent book dedicated to the labor of a great author, and at a very convenient price. If you like the Romantics, or are interested in the period, this is a book for you.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Penguin Complete Poems of Coleridge, May 12, 2007

By 

Joseph Kolupke (Alamosa, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I bought this collection of Coleridge's poems sight unseen on the assumption--which proved correct--that it would have scholarly apparatus similar to that of the other more recent Penguin editions of major poets. There is nothing else that comes close to it except for the hugely expensive Princeton edition. Everything most readers need to know about these poems is in the scrupulous notes of the editor, William Keach. I'd throw my old Modern Library selection into the garage sale heap, except that it has "Biographia Literaria" complete, though with no notes or other aids.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visions of Xanadu, July 31, 1998

By 

Stephen G. Melvin - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Plagued by alcohol and drug addiction, Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in a world of fear and sorrow. All of his agony comes out in his works. The most imaginative mind of the Romantic period, Coleridge had the uncanny ability to transport one to foreign realms and mystical places. Whether it be aboard a ship of dead men, in a bedchamber where a maiden lays with a vampire, or the pleasure dome with caves of ice at Xanadu, Coleride has a rich style and a unique vivdness that leaves a definate impact on the reader.

Whether exploring his Wordsworthian pantheism and panpsychism as in "Sonnet: To a River Otter" or "The Eolian Harp" or delving deep into the vision that haunted an addict in "Kristabel" and "Kubla Khan", the works of Coleridge are among the finest literary achievments of the English language.