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Title: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Keach ISBN: 0-14-042353-2 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Verses from a friend.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 3
Summary: A thick book
Comment: This Penguin collection has over four hundred pages of poetry--it often feels like a long hike uphill on a scorching day without water. Coleridge's poetry all sounds alike after the first hundred pages, the great exception being Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, which alone justifies the price of the book, not to mention Coleridge's reputation as a poetic genius. The Penguin collection has both old and revised versions of this poem, allowing you to appreciate the superiority of the first, and providing black and white proof of the maxim that "few things are improved by lengthening."
Much of the poetry is dated or revolting. At base, however, the poems are anchored in a love of nature, and different from other great English poets, Coleridge hardly ever expends his wit at the expense of others.
These poems contain outrage at the slave trade, outrage at warmongering, outrage at injustice, and a fine sense of beauty. The only deficiency in sentiment might be a large chunk of frustration--sexual and/or otherwise--posing as romanticism.
As with many other Penguin collections, this contains pretty much all there is, which is nice if you want to be prepared for the eventuality that someone will one day ask if you've read "A Satirical Shrub," but a bit of overkill if all you're really interested in is a familiarity with one of the language's master poets.
Rating: 5
Summary: Visions of Xanadu
Comment: 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.
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