Eilenberg's book opens the complex and fascinating topic of intellectual property, in addition to providing brilliant readings of the major poems of these two seminal Romantic poets.

Catholic priest Robert Barth outlines Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Romantic thought in a concise and easy to read manner. No, Coleridge was not just a poet; he was also a learned theologian and classicist. His Romantic thought consists of elevating the Imagination above mechanical reason, especially in theology. The Imagination is where we perceive symbol, and where we create symbols, such as in art, poetry, or music. When we create symbols, we participate in the creative action of God, the great "I Am." Thus for Coleridge, a worship service is a much better way to meet God than say, compiling a systematic theology. This is because the worship service appeals to the imagination through the symbols: bread, wine, stained glass, liturgy, music, etc.

Symbols are not "mere" representations. Symbols participate in the reality they symbolize, so that a handshake actually participates in brotherhood. A symbol, such as a handshake, is translucent and reveals eternal truth in the temporal. A symbol is almost synonymous with "sacrament," in that speaking a word of forgiveness, or breaking bread and wine, are symbols that point to actions and realities outside of themselves. While allegory fades and may be deconstructed, symbols are lasting and enduring, and are all somehow united with one another and God. Thus Coleridge owes much to neo-Platonism and the early Christian writers.

As an example of the differences between mechanical and imaginative perception, Coleridge believes that the mechanical mind only sees juxtapositions and order. A doctrine such as the Trinity seems absurd when perceived rationally, but in the imagination, the three and the one may "interpenetrate." This has implications for interpretation of the Bible. Chapter 6 of Barth deals primarily with this. Coleridge believes that literalists and anti-Christian scoffers all err, because they interpret the Bible in a mechanical way. They miss truths for words. Coleridge does not deny the historicity of the Bible per se, but believes that literal interpretation asks the wrong questions. Rather Biblical symbols, such as Jesus as both priest and sacrifice, while absurd to the literal mind, enrich the Bible's testimony when perceived by the Imagination.

This book is a great primer on Coleridge's thought. I seem to have been a kind of Romantic/Platonist since birth, so what Coleridge says resonates. Barth offers a clear summary of Coleridge's thought and current implications. If you have ever thought that mechanical "rational" thought misses meanings in life that you experience, Coleridge's philosophy might be for you. If not, buy it for historical study. The chapters are:

1. Theological Foundations of Coleridge on Imagination
2. Symbol as Sacrament
3. The Poetry of Reference
4. Poetry of Encounter: Wordsworth
5. Poetry of Encounter: Coleridge
6. The Scriptural Imagination
7. Symbol and Romanticism
8. Symbol and Religion: Past and Future

MOBY DICK (1949)
Produced and Directed By Andrew Allan
Composer Lucio Agostini Author Herman Melville Adaptor John Bethune
Produced and Directed By Andrew Allan
Ishmael- John Drainie, Captain Ahab- Lorne Greene, Mr. Starbuck- Budd Knapp,
A radio adaptation of Herman Melville's classic story of blind revenge, symbolism and bitterness. Consumed by insane rage Captain Ahab (Lorne Greene) is on a quest to Kill Moby-Dick, the Great White Whale that disfigured him. The intensity and anguish of this spectacular retelling of the epic tale come alive in this 1949 tour de force radio play.
WITH
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1949)
Produced and Directed By Andrew Allan Composer Lucio Agostini Author Samuel Taylor Coleridge Adaptor Ira Dilworth
A ship having first sailed to the equator was driven by storms to the "cold country" towards the South Pole. How the Ancient Mariner cruelly and in contempt of the laws of Hospitality killed a sea bird and how he came back to his own country

Holmes is always readable and SEEMS always sympathetic to Coleridge, but readers should be aware that Holmes as portraitist manipulates the lighting to suit his purposes. That is, he brings out the side of STC that he believes will win him to a modern reader -- such as Coleridge's anguished sexuality -- while putting in the shadow the man's religious writings. In a 900-page book, Holmes gives about two pages to one of STC's major life-works, AIDS TO REFLECTION, a metaphysical-religious tome, and a mere paragraph to his last book, ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH AND STATE. Holmes is much more interested, it appears, in the possibility that Coleridge saw the woman he loved in bed with Wordsworth -- something STC himself said he knew was just a "phantasm" of his mind. Thus, Holmes's two-volume biography is more readable than it is judicious.

Coleridge: Darker Reflections, by Richard Holmes, HarperCollins, 1998. Hardback. 622 pages. ISBN 000 255577 8

Richard Holmes' marvellous book is the sequel to his Coleridge: Early Visions. For fifteen years, he has been constantly engaged with Coleridge's ideas, poems, plays and philosophical writings. He traces Coleridge's lifelong dialogues with the greatest of English poets, Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth, and also with the finest German writers, Goethe and Schiller.

Coleridge was that rare creature, a superb poet who could also grapple with the deepest of philosophers. He could brilliantly summarise the two basic possible lines in philosophy: "The difference between Aristotle and Plato is that which will remain as long as we are men and there is any difference between man and man in point of opinion. Plato, with Pythagoras before him, had conceived that the phenomenon or outside appearance, all that we call thing or matter, is but as it were a language by which the invisible (that which is not the object of our senses) communicates its existence to our finite beings ... Aristotle, on the contrary, affirmed that all our knowledge had begun in experience, had begun through the senses, and that from the senses only we could take our notions of reality ... It was the first way in which, plainly and distinctly, two opposite systems were placed before the mind of the world."

Although Coleridge adhered to Platonism, he honestly admitted, "All these poetico-philosophical Arguments strike and shatter themselves into froth against that stubborn rock, the fact of Consciousness, or rather its dependence on the body."

Like other notable literary biographies - one thinks of Holmes' earlier one of Shelley, Richard Ellman's of Oscar Wilde, Peter Ackroyd's of Charles Dickens, Tim Hilton's of John Ruskin, E. P. Thompson's of William Morris, and Leon Edel's of Henry James - this wonderful book arouses our enthusiasm for literature. It shows us again how a great writer's work can help us both to enjoy and to make sense of the world.

This is the way biographies should be written. It has the feel of a novel, except that few novels are so vivid and even fewer novelists would dare tell a story like this one. On the surface, nothing seems to have happened. Coleridge's famous achievements are already behind him when the book opens and he has become trapped in opium addiction. Certainly, Coleridge felt much like the athlete who has outlived his legs. He longed to achieve more and seemed to achieve nothing. Yet somehow he invented the modern literary mind. He transformed Hamelt from being just one of Shakespeare's tragedies into being Shakespeare's most important tragedy. He invented the literary memoir that combines a history of one's ideas with one's life. He developed our modern understanding of fiction and the unwilling suspension of disbelief. I suppose it is true that I did not come away from the book with an understanding of what made him tick, but I sure learned how he ticked and I was deeply moved by this grand and tragic life.

I am almost as much in awe of the erudition of the editors (James Engell and W Jackson Bates of the Bolingen edition) as that of Coleridge himself. I think it is often easier to parade one's own wide reading than to recognize someone elses's references. These editors track down the most obscure of Greek, German and Latin quotations and it's an education to read their notes.
There are really three themes in the book. One part is philosophy, one is literary criticism, and one is straight autobiography. These are dispersed throughout.
As regards the philosophy I am probably what he would have called "ignorant of his understanding." Coleridge shows a remarkable knowledge of German philosophy, read in the original language. As far as I know his philosophical ideas have not been highly regarded by pure philosophers.
The literary criticism is the most powerful and original part although the texts he uses will be unfamiliar and even anaccessible to most modern readers.
The fragments of autobiography such as chapter 10 and the first of the Satyrayane's Letters are the most readable.
While this is an unboubted work of genius I have denied it the fifth star because of a certain lack of redability. It is not, for the modern reader, a page-turning work of entertainment. It contains many gems, and much wit, but is one of those we take up today for instruction rather than diversion.

Bede Griffiths, in his book The Golden String, referred to STC as "one of the most universal minds in English literature."

I don't know of anything comparable to Biographia Literaria. At times it's the narrative of a great poet's life. He may veer off into literary criticism or even parody (see the, to me, hilarious section in which he gives "The House that Jack Built" in the rhetorical manner of a recent poet). He powerfully attacks the positivism of his age (and ours). He evokes the wonder of being human.

This scholarly edition is the one to get, if you're going to put in the time to read this rich classic at all.

Coleridge was on the romantic side of poetry, however, when reading Kubla Khan, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner, you can't help but think there was some what of an explorer, an adventuristic style in his words that, save opium, had no way to bud a grow with all around hearts-a-bursting. I liken Pablo Neruda to Coleridge, their visions, love, and spirit's ferosity seem to have been forged from the same mettle. Grecian Urn, Nightingale and others should all be required reading for the young. I guarantee there would be a lot more wonder, and a little more love in this world.

I love travel narratives that take me on slow, relaxing journeys to unusual places. This author takes a journey to find the sources of famous poetic fragment, trying to locate Xanadu. This is a pleasant, slow read, and it was intriguing to find that the one part of this search led her back to a neighborhood of her own childhood.

Travel book that not only details the author's journeys around the world, but also back in time, to find the origin of Coleridge's famous poem about Xanadu. Very interesting and readable, I have read it three or four times now, always with pleasure. Readers who like "The Road to Ubar" (another fabulous travel/detective story) will like the "Way to Xanadu."

This Penguin collection has over four hundred pages of poetry--it often feels like a long hike uphill on a scorching day without water. Coleridge's poetry all sounds alike after the first hundred pages, the great exception being Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, which alone justifies the price of the book, not to mention Coleridge's reputation as a poetic genius. The Penguin collection has both old and revised versions of this poem, allowing you to appreciate the superiority of the first, and providing black and white proof of the maxim that "few things are improved by lengthening."

Much of the poetry is dated or revolting, especially the tributes to god and living a good christian life. At base, however, the poems are anchored in a love of nature, and different from other great English poets, Coleridge hardly ever expends his wit at the expense of others.

These poems contain outrage at the slave trade, outrage at warmongering, outrage at injustice, and a fine sense of beauty. The only deficiency in sentiment might be a large chunk of frustration--sexual and/or otherwise--posing as romanticism.

As with many other Penguin collections, this contains pretty much all there is, which is nice if you want to be prepared for the eventuality that someone will one day ask if you've read "A Satirical Shrub," but a bit of overkill if all you're really interested in is a familiarity with one of the language's master poets.

This Penguin collection compares very well with my own Oxford Edition of 1935, and I particularly like the fact that the price is reasonable, so more people may decide to buy the book instead of just getting the two or three poems available in a typical anthology. Samuel Taylor Coleridge suffered a lot during his life: unrequited love, drug addiction, inferiority complex. Yet what a wonderful legacy for all of us fortunate enough to read his verses. My favorite poem is Christabel and I can't help picture the entire poem in my mind as if it were a gothic-horror film. The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner is his most famous work, but all of his other great and not-so great works are here, too: Dejection, an Ode; To Mathilda Betham from a Stranger; Kubla Khan; Ode to the Departing Year; The Nightingale; A Stranger Minstrel, etc. Coleridge represents the departure from the Neo-Classic and the introduction to the Romantic. He and his friend Wordsworth are pivotal in achieving that change. His religious poems may seem odd to a modern reader, but mysticism was nothing new back then, and the man was trying to make sense of his very difficult life, anchoring his hopes in his religion. Anyone who purchases, or borrows, this book, must know that hundreds of pages worth of poetry tell us a lot about the poet, since we are reading his life's work. Excellent book dedicated to the labor of a great author, and at a very convenient price. If you like the Romantics, or are interested in the period, this is a book for you.

Plagued by alcohol and drug addiction, Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in a world of fear and sorrow. All of his agony comes out in his works. The most imaginative mind of the Romantic period, Coleridge had the uncanny ability to transport one to foreign realms and mystical places. Whether it be aboard a ship of dead men, in a bedchamber where a maiden lays with a vampire, or the pleasure dome with caves of ice at Xanadu, Coleride has a rich style and a unique vivdness that leaves a definate impact on the reader.

Whether exploring his Wordsworthian pantheism and panpsychism as in "Sonnet: To a River Otter" or "The Eolian Harp" or delving deep into the vision that haunted an addict in "Kristabel" and "Kubla Khan", the works of Coleridge are among the finest literary achievments of the English language.

Caveat emptor: nothing later than 1922 in this collection - i.e. nothing from 'The Hollow Men', 'Ash-Wednesday', 'Ariel' poems, the Four Quartets, etc. etc. A seriously deficient selection.

Excellent selection of poetry and poetry-related essays by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. NOTE: previous reviewer seems to have confused Coleridge with Eliot. Coleridge DID NOT WRITE The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, or Ash Wednesday -- THAT is why those are not in this book. He DIED in 1834!!

I bought this book based on some of the earlier Amazon.com glowing reviews. I'm not going to say that they were wrong, because appreciation of poetry is subjective. I will offer up, however, that I had a different impression entirely. Delatorre's additional verses have a monotonous regularity of rhythm (as opposed to the sensuous variation of meter in Coleridge's verse) and seem wholey devoted to moralistic sermonizing. This "completion" of Coleridge's poem is not in the least a fulfillment of the almost painfully beautiful images that make up the original Kubla Khan.

My original rating of this book was a "3" because it was not what I had expected, but I changed it to a "4" out of respect for the author. The completion of the poem itself seemed out of sync with the original, but obviously it WOULD have been, since the authors were separated by nearly two centuries. I suppose that, having been enthralled with "Kubla Khan" since my freshman year in college, that I would have been hard on any author who attempted to complete such an exquisite poem as this one. I found that Delatorre's opinion about what happened AFTER the poem's original ending was far different from my opinion. I guess I expected something more fantastic and/or supernatural. I would say, though, that Delatorre's preface was both humble and inspirational and made the book worth keeping and his completion worth reading again.

The nerve of Julio Delatorre! Is nothing sacred? This could well be your reaction upon finding that someone has completed a poem the famous Samuel Taylor Coleridge left unfinished some 200 years ago. But, whatever your reaction, I strongly urge you to set such thoughts aside and enjoy this work for what it is, an extraordinary literary creation from begining to end.

Who could have known where Coleridge was going with his poem? At the time even he couldn't remember, having dreamed the epic in its entirety, only to lose the thread early in the writing due to an interruption. As a result, we were left with a mere fragment of less than a hundred lines. The completed poem is well over 300 lines and the reader will be hard-pressed to know where Delatorre picked up and Coleridge left off.

All of that aside, I find the work to be tremendously moving. I particularly enjoy reading it aloud and I must admit I have not yet been able to get through it without a severe emotional upheaval; the beauty and power of it makes me weep - every time.

And then, to complement in kind the richness of the verse, there are the exquisite illustrations by the singular master of the genre, Frank Frazetta.

However this work came to be, whether through magic, raw skill, or some other explanation, or all of the above, what is obvious is that we are left with a sublime treasure that "bolts forward with hurricane energy" to its profound and startling conclusion.

I do recommend that the glossary of uncommon words in the back of the book be perused prior to reading, for enhanced enjoyment and understanding of the poem.