Opis: The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats - Coleridge Samuel Taylor

Excerpt from The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats: Complete in One Volume

There is no writer of his time who has been more the theme of panegyric by his friends, and of censure by his enemies, than Coleridge. It has been the custom of the former to injure him by extravagant praise, and of the latter to pour upon his head much unmerited abuse. Coleridge has left undone so much which his talents and genius would have enabled him to effect, and has done on the whole so little, that he has given his foes apparent foundation for some of their vituperation. His natural character, however, is indolent; he is far more ambitious of excelling in conversation, and of pouring out his wild philosophical theories - of discoursing about

Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute -

the mysteries of Kant, and the dreams of metaphysical vanity, than "in building the lofty rhyme." His poems, however, which have been recently collected, form several volumes; - and the beauty of some of his pieces so amply redeems the extravagance of others, that there can be but one regret respecting him, namely, that he should have preferred the shortlived perishing applause bestowed upon his conversation, to the lasting renown attending successful poetical efforts. Not but that Coleridge may lay claim to the praise due to a successful worship of the muses; for as long as the English language endures, his "Genevieve" and "Ancient Mariner" will be read: but he has been content to do far less than his abilities clearly demonstrate him able to effect.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born at Ottery Saint Mary, a town of Devonshire, in 1773. His father, the Rev. John Coleridge, was vicar there, having been previously a schoolmaster at South Molton. He is said to have been a person of considerable learning, and to have published several essays in fugitive publications. He assisted Dr. Kennicot in collating his manuscripts for a Hebrew bible, and, among other things, wrote a dissertation on the "Aoyos". He was also the author of an excellent Latin grammar. He died in 1782, at the age of sixty-two, much regretted, leaving a considerable family, three of which, if so many, are all who now survive; and of these the poet is the youngest.

Coleridge was educated at Christ's Hospital school, London. The smallness of his father's living and large family rendered the strictest economy necessary. At this excellent seminary he was soon discovered to be a boy of talent, eccentric but acute. According to his own statement, the master, the Rev. J. Bowyer, was a severe disciplinarian after the inane practice of English grammar-school modes, but was fond of encouraging genius, even in the lads he flagellated most unmercifully. He taught with assiduity, and directed the taste of youth to the beauties of the better classical authors, and to comparisons of one with another. "He habituated me," says Coleridge, "to compare Lucretius, Terence, and above all the chaste poems of Catullus, not only with the Roman poets of the so called silver and brazen ages, but with even those of the Augustan era; and, on grounds of plain sense and universal logic, to see and assert the superiority of the former, in the truth and nativeness both of their thoughts and diction. At the same time that we were studying the Greek tragic poets, he made us read Shakspeare and Milton as lessons; and they were the lessons too which required most time and trouble to bring up, so as to escape his censure. I learned from him that poetry, even that of the loftiest, and seemingly that of the wildest odes, had a logic of its own, as severe as that of science, and more difficult; because more subtle and complex, and dependent on more and more fugitive causes. In our English compositions (at least for the last three years of our school education) he showed no mercy to phrase, image, or metaphor, unsupported by a sound sense, or where the same sense might have been conveyed w

Szczegóły: The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats - Coleridge Samuel Taylor

Nazwa: The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats Complete in One Volume (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Coleridge Samuel Taylor
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331069485
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 624
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats - Coleridge Samuel Taylor