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The Portable Coleridge
Chronically impoverished, tormented by self-doubt and a crippling addiction to opium, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) still managed to become one of the most versatile and influential forces of English romanticism.
The Portable Coleridge faithfully represents all facets of this complex, haunted genius, including his poems, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Christabel,""Kubla Khan," and "Dejection"; letters to friends and colleagues such as Robert Southey and William Godwin; selections from Notebooks and Table Talk; political and philosophical writings; literary criticism; and extensive excerpts from Biographia Literaria, in which Coleridge interweaves aesthetics, metaphysics, and disarmingly candid autobiography. Edited and with an introduction by the critic I.A. Richards, this volume vastly expands our understanding of a writer of visionary insight and protean range.
630 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1950
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About the author
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2,193 books877 followersSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 31, 2015
Coleridge's highly sophisticated poetry blends well with the subtle political criticism of his day. Coleridge didn't write to instill fanciful images of light-hearted scenes of romance, but at his best makes a powerful statement about the forces of nature and love in human experience (the haunting Rime of the Ancient Mariner no less a fantastic example of English literature). Yet, exploring other dimensions, I find Coleridge's slight sarcasm and playfully-clever ideas of love and death to be equally engaging. While not an endeared favorite of mine, Coleridge is certainly worth reading as a prime example of English literature.
December 8, 2013
Thorough. Good. And thorough. Loved STC the writer....bored to tears by the 'letter writer'. I'm sure that if I was really into the life and times of the gentleman, I would find his personal musings and bibliophilisophical conjectures quite fascinating. Ah, but alas, I am not the erudite patrician of yonder times. I am but a vagabond, a rapacious fellow of ill repute. Low becomings, and lower goings...oh, wait, so was STC! Sweet!
July 30, 2007
Great selection of Coleridge's work. Lime Tree Bower My Prison, Christabel, Rime and Kublai Khan are here, along with selections of his prose, especially the Literary Biography, which is basically a diary of his voracious reading, which is mind-blowing. Fabulous book!!
October 30, 2015
This Lime Tree Bower My Prison is magnificent. Brilliant poet.
September 3, 2025
There are few men in the history of English Letters quite like Samuel Taylor Coleridge; what a tour de force this has been.
I really liked all of his poetry, I have very few, if any objections to it. The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, truly opened my eyes to the peaks of Coleridge’s poetic powers, and I foundd it to be generally very pleasant.
I read a good chunk of his letters, skimmed through the rest; very enjoyable, although at times rather mundane. Still, some did contain the occasional insight into his philosophical ideas or judgments, or the occasional ‘casual criticism’ so to speak.
His political writings were also very enjoyable, some passages of it I could even apply to our current day and age. His theological writings were rather forgettable, and I skipped the entirety of ‘On Method’ because I found it rather abstruse and obscure.
Coleridge’s literary criticism was all very very pleasant. I read all of it except his lecture on Shakespeare which I believe was reproduced almost in full; meanwhile a meager 2 or 3 pages were dedicated to Milton, quite a melancholy thing.
The Selections of Biographia Literaria which my volume included I read selectively. I read the first few chapters on the aims of his work, on the irritability of geniuses, on his perceived obligations to critics. Then I skipped some of the more abstruse chapters (On the law of association) or the more digresive ones. And then gave my full attention to his account of how the ‘Lyrical Ballads’ came into existence, and his extended disquisition and many criticisms on Wordsworth’s poetic theory as advanced in his ‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ first published in the 1800 edition. This I believe has been the most important gift Coleridge has given me. I have a difficult relationship to Wordsworth, and to become myself acquainted with the criticisms and shortcomings that Coleridge’s mind, endlessly clever and genial, identified, has been nothing less than wonderful, eye opening.
I had some misgivings about skipping certain sections, but I think Coleridge ought to be read and discerned carefully.
He is by all accounts, one of the greatest geniuses England has birthed.
I really liked all of his poetry, I have very few, if any objections to it. The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, truly opened my eyes to the peaks of Coleridge’s poetic powers, and I foundd it to be generally very pleasant.
I read a good chunk of his letters, skimmed through the rest; very enjoyable, although at times rather mundane. Still, some did contain the occasional insight into his philosophical ideas or judgments, or the occasional ‘casual criticism’ so to speak.
His political writings were also very enjoyable, some passages of it I could even apply to our current day and age. His theological writings were rather forgettable, and I skipped the entirety of ‘On Method’ because I found it rather abstruse and obscure.
Coleridge’s literary criticism was all very very pleasant. I read all of it except his lecture on Shakespeare which I believe was reproduced almost in full; meanwhile a meager 2 or 3 pages were dedicated to Milton, quite a melancholy thing.
The Selections of Biographia Literaria which my volume included I read selectively. I read the first few chapters on the aims of his work, on the irritability of geniuses, on his perceived obligations to critics. Then I skipped some of the more abstruse chapters (On the law of association) or the more digresive ones. And then gave my full attention to his account of how the ‘Lyrical Ballads’ came into existence, and his extended disquisition and many criticisms on Wordsworth’s poetic theory as advanced in his ‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ first published in the 1800 edition. This I believe has been the most important gift Coleridge has given me. I have a difficult relationship to Wordsworth, and to become myself acquainted with the criticisms and shortcomings that Coleridge’s mind, endlessly clever and genial, identified, has been nothing less than wonderful, eye opening.
I had some misgivings about skipping certain sections, but I think Coleridge ought to be read and discerned carefully.
He is by all accounts, one of the greatest geniuses England has birthed.
December 22, 2022
All the great Coleridge any reader will need is here. The poems have always interested me more than his criticism. I know he's considered a great critic, too, probably along with T.S. Eliot the best critic/also great writer we have. But I love "The Ancient Mariner." I've never read anything else like it. And there are other, maybe more famous short poems like "Kubla Khan" and longer ones like "Christabel." Coleridge also has some grand, towering poems like "Mahomet" that are memorable, too. Here's just one part of "The Ancient Mariner" I love, where the sea snakes are coming for the ship:
"Beyond the shadow of the ship,
I watched the water-snakes;
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.
O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.
The selfsame moment I could pray:
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
LIke lead into the sea."
"Beyond the shadow of the ship,
I watched the water-snakes;
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they reared the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.
O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.
The selfsame moment I could pray:
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
LIke lead into the sea."
November 30, 2023
Okay, you read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in both high school and college but you can't bring to mind any other composition from Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Well, here's your chance at redemption.
Surprisingly, in addition to much poetry by this poet, over two-thirds of this 630-page paperback is filled with letters, critical essays and other ruminations by this English literary giant. In his essay mode, STC wrote long, dense sentences that will take some work slogging through, but stick at it: the effort is worth it.
One slight that the editor elected to omit from this book was STC's last essay, an important one, entitled, "On the Constitution of Church and State." I'll need to read that on another source.
All in all, find a copy, read it and add it to your library.
Surprisingly, in addition to much poetry by this poet, over two-thirds of this 630-page paperback is filled with letters, critical essays and other ruminations by this English literary giant. In his essay mode, STC wrote long, dense sentences that will take some work slogging through, but stick at it: the effort is worth it.
One slight that the editor elected to omit from this book was STC's last essay, an important one, entitled, "On the Constitution of Church and State." I'll need to read that on another source.
All in all, find a copy, read it and add it to your library.
September 11, 2025
'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is one of my favorite gothic poems/stories, and I've read it several times. I decided to do a deeper dive into the writings of Coleridge, and with this book I also learned a great deal of his personal history. To say he was a brilliant-but-troubled man is a very big understatement. He was a very progressive and gentle mind in times that were simply not ready for him. So he escaped into worlds of fantasy (and opium)...and what fantastic worlds he created! Reading the Ancient Mariner again was a delight, but the real gem here for me was 'Kubla Khan'. I had not read it before, and was thoroughly absorbed. I skipped through a few of the other stories and poems that were not as interesting to me. But this book is worth the price of admission alone for his biography, 'Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Kahn'.
May 5, 2010
"A poem is that species of composition, which is opposed to works of science, by proposing for its immediate object pleasure, not truth; and from all other species (having this object in common with it) it is discriminated by proposing to itself such delight from the whole, as is compatible with a distinct gratitication from each component part." (Biographia Literaria, XIV)
January 17, 2008
in xanadu did kublai khan, a stately pleasure dome decree, where alph the sacred river ran, through caverns measureless to man and down to a sunless sea.
May 16, 2007
Great short biography and collection of Coleridge!!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews