Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This review relates to the volume -The Works of SamuelTaylor Coleridge-, published by The Wordsworth PoetryLibrary, Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1994. 614 pp.There is an "Introduction" by Martin Corner (KingstonUniversity) and an excellent "Preface" by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, which not only tells the completeselection of poems and how they were arrived at (reprinted here by Wordsworth Editions) but alsoincludes the publishing history of the variouseditions, and how the separately published itemswere brought together. This reprinted edition mustbe of an edition after 1893, as that is the lastedition mentioned by E.H. Coleridge in his Preface.This reprint is a wonder for general readers, students,and scholars (particulary the latter, for the notes,publishing histories, and first-time inclusions ofitems not found elsewhere before this edition areinvaluable).The notes below major poems, little known items,and previously not published pieces are extremelyvaluable and interesting. The collection of poemsthemselves are listed in chronological order undereach year starting with 1787 ("Easter Holidays" [MS.Letter, May 13, 1787.], "Dura Navis" [B.M. Add. MSS.34,225], "Nil Pejus est Caelib Vita" [Boyer's -LiberAureus.], for instance.For this edition, E.H. Coleridge in the "Preface"states: "I desire to express my thanks to my kinsman Lord Coleridge for opportunity kindly afforded me of collating the text of the fragments first published in1893 with the original MSS. in his possession, and ofmaking further extracts; to Mr. Gordon Wordsworth forpermitting me to print a first draft of the poem addressedto his ancestor on the 'Growth of an Individual Mind'; andto Miss Arnold of Fox How for a copy of the first draft of lines 'On Revisiting the Sea-shore.'This is a COMPLETE edition or collection of all ofColeridge's work. Although many people will be interestedin Coleridge as the author of "The Rime of the AncientMariner," "Christabel," and "Kubla Khan," there are themany lesser known (but no less interesting and insightful)poems here -- as well as the the obvious influences ofClassical reading and learning on Coleridge.There are the 9 "Sonnets on Eminent Charcters" (includingMr. Erskine, Burke, Priestley, La Fayette, Koskiusko, Pitt, Rev. W.L. Bowles, Mrs. Siddons, William Godwin,Robert Southey of Baliol College, Oxford, RichardBrinsley Sheridan, Esq., and Lord Stanhope; two versionsof "Monody on the Death of Chatterton"; "A MathematicalProblem" (in verse!); "Pantisocracy;" "On the Prospectof establishing a Pantisocracy in America;" "To theNightingale;" "The Eolian Harp;" and, under 1797,"The Raven" (which predates Edgar Allan Poe's ownfamous poem addressed to that subject). The real treasures, however, are the host of lesserknown but provocative philosophical speculations,allegorical compositions, and moody meditations.Among these would be poems like "Psyche;" "A TomblessEpitaph," "The Visionary Hope;" "Time, Real andImaginary: An Allegory;" "To Nature" (1820?)