Don Juan Book

I have to confess that Romantic Poetry is not my bailiwick...poetry of any kind is mostly beyond me, even though I'd like to be more appreciative. But, Coleridge happens to have written two poems that I do appreciate, which was the reason for picking up this slim volume of his selected poetry: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. And, as I had started reading The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination by John Livingston Lowes (which traces the sources Coleridge used in these two of his most famous poems), I thought this would be a good companion volume to read at the same time.

This edition has a thirty page biographical introduction to Coleridge and his poetry by the critic and poet James Reeves, which I found extremely helpful, especially in conjunction with The Road to Xanadu, as well as the other poems themselves. Of these, there are about 50 complete poems and fragments, in roughly chronological order, the first sixteen of which might rightly be called juvenilia. These seemed to me to be on par with most emotionally fraught poetry--in other words, difficult to read. In a volume of selected poetry, it seems like a waste to include these, as Coleridge enthusiasts would likely want a complete edition, with all he wrote, and those of us who are likely only to appreciate his mature work could quite likely do with a much abbreviated selection of his younger efforts.

But starting with This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison, we get to Coleridge's creative period, and even I could immediately tell the difference. Still, though, reading through the collection one time, there were only three poems that had any real effect on me--the two already mentioned, and Christabel. There were moments in others, and I will undoubtedly return to this again, if for no other reason than for Kubla Khan, Mariner, and Christabel, and at the same time re-sample some of the others. For that, this is a handy volume to have around, even with the earlier works I found unpalatable.