Synopses & Reviews
Coleridge has been perceived as the youthful author of a few brilliant poems and the rest of his career as a downward spiral of unfinished verses, philosophical meanderings, and opium addiction. While the perception contains just enough truth to render it indestructible, it is neither the whole truth nor the only one. The present study argues that the poetry is a continuous process of experimentation, especially with metre, rhythm and sound patterns. It provides a new perspective on both familiar and unfamiliar poems, and of the relation between Coleridge's poetry and philosophical thinking, and suggests connections with several modern writers.
Review
Review
Review
"Mays effected a change in our sense of the writer in the way that only a very rare edition can achieve . . . The book is full of perception and wisdom and meditated style. Mays is excellent on the plays, on the epigrams, on the translations. He possesses a vivid and affectionate critical voice of his own." - Seamus Perry, The Wordsworth Circle
"This is the most intelligent critical analysis that I've seen in a lifetime of studying Coleridge, a model of the best that literary study can achieve." - Jack Stillinger, Center for Advanced Study Professor of English, University of Illinois, USA and author of Romantic Complexity: Keats, Coleridge, and Wordsworth (2006) and two dozen earlier books mostly on Romantic writers
Synopsis
Coleridge has been perceived as the youthful author of a few brilliant poems. This study argues that his poetry is actually a continuous process of experimentation and provides a new perspective on both familiar and unfamiliar poems, as well as the relation between Coleridge's poetry and philosophical thinking.
About the Author
J.C.C. Mays is Professor Emeritus of English and American Literature at University College Dublin, Ireland. He is the editor of The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and has written on and edited a variety of modern, mainly Irish authors.
Table of Contents
1. Making a Poet
2. A Poet Making
3. Matters of Style
4. Root and Branch
5. Translucent Mechanics
6. "So viel Anfang war noch nie"
7. Readerly Reflections