...that hour I would wish'd to die.
If thro'the shuddering midnight I had sent
From the dark dungeon of the Tower time-rent
That fearful voice, a famish'd Father's cry -
Lest in some aftre moment aught more mean
Might stamp me mortal! A triumphant shout
Black Horror scream'd, and all her goblin rout
Diminish'd shrunk from the withering scene!

from To the Author of 'The Robbers'

In this unusual selection, one of the great poet-critics of the twentieth century encounters and re-appraises the greatest poet-critic of the nineteenth. William Empson, assisted by David Pirie, chooses from Coleridge's vast and uneven ouevre the salient poems, and edits and annotates them. Here is a classic example of Empson's techniques of creative and scholarly reading and the best possible introduction to the work of one of the most haunting poets in the English language.

'The pith of my system,' says Coleridge, 'is to make the senses out of mind - not the mind out of the senses, as Locke did.'

Table of Contents

  Introduction by William Empson

To the Author of 'The Robbers'

Monologue to a Young Jack Ass in Jesus Piece

The Eolian Harp

  From Reflections on Entering into Active Life

  From Religious Musings

  From The Destiny of Nations

This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison

The Foster-mother's Tale

The Dungeon

On a Ruined House in a Romantic Country

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Christabel

Fire, Famine and Slaughter

Frost at Midnight

  From Fears in Solitude

The Nightingale

Kubla Khan

Lines Composed in a Concert-Room

Introduction to the Tale of the Dark Ladie

The Mad Monk

A Letter to....

Chamouny; the Hour Before Sunrise

The Pains of Sleep

Phantom

Psyche

Human Life

On Donne's Poetry

Work Without Hope

Song

Epitaph

Fragments



  Textual Commentary by David Pirie

Notes by David Pirie

Index of First Lines

Illustrations

1. The Sailors and the Albatross

2. Why We Omit the Marginal Glosses