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Article: `Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Poems,' edited by Richard Holmes Penguin;.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- December 20, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Years ago I was discussing Samuel Taylor Coleridge with a friend. "Coleridge is the one-hit-wonder of Romantic poetry," my buddy said.
I agreed, although I said I thought Coleridge (1772-1834) was more of a three-hit wonder: As a young poet he had written one masterpiece, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but also one great fragment, "Christabel," and one poem of dream-and-drug-inspired creative epiphany, "Kubla Khan."
Still, my friend's point was well-taken. All three poems I cited were conceived before Coleridge's 30th birthday, although he revised the "Mariner" for decades, tried in vain to finish "Christabel" for years and even tinkered with "Kubla ...