What do ya'll think of Samuel Taylor Coleridge?
>>9916833
He should be the King of /lit/ because
The Biographia Literaria is the shit!
I think his ascot is a bit overstated
laud(anum)able
>>9916833
I like how he called out Wordsworth for sucking at everything.
>>9917513
quote?
>>9917513
Byron did this as well. Turdsworth, I believed he called him.
>>9918319
A turd's sometimes worth more than a word, I've heard
The best.
"This Lime-tree Bower my Prison"
[Addressed to Charles Lamb, of the India House, London]
Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
Beauties and feelings, such as would have been
Most sweet to my remembrance even when age
Had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile,
Friends, whom I never more may meet again,
On springy heath, along the hill-top edge,
Wander in gladness, and wind down, perchance,
To that still roaring dell, of which I told;
The roaring dell, o'erwooded, narrow, deep,
And only speckled by the mid-day sun;
Where its slim trunk the ash from rock to rock
Flings arching like a bridge;—that branchless ash,
Unsunn'd and damp, whose few poor yellow leaves
Ne'er tremble in the gale, yet tremble still,
Fann'd by the water-fall! and there my friends
Behold the dark green file of long lank weeds,
That all at once (a most fantastic sight!)
Still nod and drip beneath the dripping edge
Of the blue clay-stone.
Now, my friends emerge
Beneath the wide wide Heaven—and view again
The many-steepled tract magnificent
Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea,
With some fair bark, perhaps, whose sails light up
The slip of smooth clear blue betwixt two Isles
Of purple shadow! Yes! they wander on
In gladness all; but thou, methinks, most glad,
My gentle-hearted Charles! for thou hast pined
And hunger'd after Nature, many a year,
In the great City pent, winning thy way
With sad yet patient soul, through evil and pain
And strange calamity! Ah! slowly sink
Behind the western ridge, thou glorious Sun!
Shine in the slant beams of the sinking orb,
Ye purple heath-flowers! richlier burn, ye clouds!
Live in the yellow light, ye distant groves!
And kindle, thou blue Ocean! So my friend
Struck with deep joy may stand, as I have stood,
Silent with swimming sense; yea, gazing round
On the wide landscape, gaze till all doth seem
Less gross than bodily; and of such hues
As veil the Almighty Spirit, when yet he makes
Spirits perceive his presence.
>>9918512
A delight
Comes sudden on my heart, and I am glad
As I myself were there! Nor in this bower,
This little lime-tree bower, have I not mark'd
Much that has sooth'd me. Pale beneath the blaze
Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd
Some broad and sunny leaf, and lov'd to see
The shadow of the leaf and stem above
Dappling its sunshine! And that walnut-tree
Was richly ting'd, and a deep radiance lay
Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps
Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass
Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue
Through the late twilight: and though now the bat
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters,
Yet still the solitary humble-bee
Sings in the bean-flower! Henceforth I shall know
That Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure;
No plot so narrow, be but Nature there,
No waste so vacant, but may well employ
Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart
Awake to Love and Beauty! and sometimes
'Tis well to be bereft of promis'd good,
That we may lift the soul, and contemplate
With lively joy the joys we cannot share.
My gentle-hearted Charles! when the last rook
Beat its straight path along the dusky air
Homewards, I blest it! deeming its black wing
(Now a dim speck, now vanishing in light)
Had cross'd the mighty Orb's dilated glory,
While thou stood'st gazing; or, when all was still,
Flew creeking o'er thy head, and had a charm
For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom
No sound is dissonant which tells of Life.
>>9916989
This, though for his poetry too.
>>9918696
And The Friend essays.
A brilliant poet, critic, theologian and political thinker. He suffered so much during his lifetime. Dejection: An Ode is a very accurate description of depression.
>>9918319
too bad they're both worse than him. Classic turdsworth.
I have a book that said he would have been one of the greatest ever but he struggled with laziness. Is this true?
Strange that the author of Kubla Khan produced more good criticism and philosophy than good poetry.
>>9917513
He thought the Excursion was one of the best poems ever written
>>9920430
he's already one of the great poets. Also thats a dopey modern self help attitude than has no relevance to poetry. hard work is more for like, salesmen and construction workers.
>>9920430
>I have a book that said he would have been one of the greatest ever but he struggled with laziness. Is this true?
lol no
He knew Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French and German I think, and was familiar with every obscure masterpiece or prose work that could be dug up.
Someone called the wreck of a poet in a haze of opium, but I don't know how true that is. Few poets even get down a single line as good as the opening to Kubla Khan.
>>9916833
>ya'll
you all.
I plan on reading more of Coleridge soon.
Not as cute as Shelley or Keats so I'm afraid I must put him further on in the backlog
>>9920648
is keats a kinomeme or what
>>9919863
>I wrote my Master's Thesis on him
What was it about?
>>9917477
Underrated post
>>9916833
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-nBtTcVAho
I like what Hazlitt said of him: betrayed his principles by becoming a Tory, betrayed his talents by becoming an opium fiend.
>>9922635
He wasn’t your conventional Tory though. John Stuart Mill said that some of his remarks were “sufficient to make a Tory’s hair stand on end” and he was very critical of Edmund Burke. He was also an early opponent of the emerging laissez-faire capitalist system and always maintained his belief in freedom. He just became more appreciative of long-standing traditions and institutions. It’s not really surprising that Coleridge came to reject the French Revolution given it’s intense hostility to Christianity. I do agree about the opium addiction though, as did Coleridge himself.
he was pretty good
>>9922635
Though I love many of Hazlitt's essays and especially admire him as a stylist, there's no comparing him to the man he too obviously wanted to be.
Man, I just today started reading for my graduate class on Romanticism. Coleridge is fresh on my mind, although I haven't gotten to any of his actual stuff yet.
>>9922635
>romantics
>not innate reactionaries
You are the one who doesn't see things anon.