The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Paperback, Reissue)

'A great poet must be implicité if not explicitié, a profound Metaphysician ... for all sounds, and forms of human nature he must have the ear of a wild Arab listening in the silent Desert - the eye of a North American Indian tracing the footsteps of an Enemy upon the Leaves that strew the Forest; the Touch of a Blind Man feeling the face of a darling Child' - Coleridge to William Sotheby, 1802 This Penguin English Poets edition of the poetry of Coleridge (1772-1834) contains the final texts of all the poems published in the poet's lifetime, together with a substantial selection from the verse still in manuscript on his death. William Keach's notes draw attention to significant variants, and important earlier versions of 'A Monody on the Death of Chatterton', 'The Eolian Harp', 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Dejection: An Ode' are included in full. The poems are arranged in chronological order of composition, the best way of presenting a poet's work in Coleridge's view as it preserves 'the interest which arises from watching the progress, maturity and even the decay of genius'.