Coleridge's Conversation Poems

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how it is the structure Coleridge's conversation poems that makes them both unique as poetry and effective at conveying the Romantic philosophy. The paper focuses on "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" and "Frost at Midnight" and shows how these poems' effectiveness result from Coleridge's use of the poem's structure.

From the Paper:

"The Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge is most commonly remembered for mysterious, drug-induced poetry as exemplified by The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. However, Coleridge also produced eight or so pieces that are shorter and more relaxed in tone, although serious in subject matter. These pieces - his conversation poems - were composed "as the expressions of feeling...occasioned by quite definite events" that he used to jump-start mental journeys on a stream of consciousness, in and out of imaginary worlds (Harper 1). It is the structure of the conversation poems that makes them both unique as poetry and effective at conveying the Romantic philosophy that 'one Life' connects man to nature, and that nature directly connects man to God."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beer, John. Coleridge's Poetic Intelligence. New York: Macmillan, 1977.
• Harper, George McLean. Coleridge's Conversation Poems. Electronic text center. 9 Dec. 2003. <http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/recources/ conv_poems_essay. htm>.
• Holmes, Richard. Coleridge: Early Visions. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989.
• Newlyn, Lucy. Coleridge, Wordsworth, and the Language of Allusion. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
• Rzepka, Charles J. The Self as Mind: Vision and Identity in Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986.

More papers on Coleridge's Conversation Poems:

• Analytical Essay # 7669 : "Two Conversation and Imagination Poems by Coleridge"
• Comparison Essay # 7463 : "The Eolian Harp" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes"

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