Poems List

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

2

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

1

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice.

1

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

2

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

1

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

2

At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock.

‘Kubla Khan’ (1816) preliminary note

1

What is an Epigram? a dwarfish whole,

Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

2

And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin

Is pride that apes humility.

But oh! each visitation

Suspends what nature gave me at my birth,

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a seminal figure in English literature, a poet, literary critic, and philosopher who played a crucial role in the development of Romanticism. Born in Ottery St Mary, Devon, in 1772, his poetic work, notably "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan", is celebrated for its vivid imagination and ethereal lyricism. Coleridge was also an influential literary critic, whose ideas on imagination and the relationship between the poet and nature shaped later literary theory. He collaborated with William Wordsworth on the publication "Lyrical Ballads", a landmark of Romanticism. His philosophical and theological reflections, though sometimes obscure, reveal a profound and inquisitive mind. His life was marked by health problems and opium addiction, which affected his productivity and stability. Samuel Taylor Coleridge passed away in 1834, leaving a lasting legacy in poetry and criticism.