This is an incredible book, a collaboration, really, featuring reproductions of the wood engravings that were created by Gustave Dore in 1875, inspired by this epic poem by Samuel Coleridge. (the editorial reviews are confusing, because they describe books by different artists) There are 42 magnificent illustrations, on 9 x 12 pages no less, for just six bucks and change. You won't find a better bargain here.

And all the boards did shrink. Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink." These famous lines, like the opening lines of Coleridge's Kubla Khan, are often quoted, but I sometimes wonder if the people who quote them have read this wonderful poem. The poem is full of mystery and horror, from the Mariner stopping the wedding guest, to the incident w/ the albatros, to the gambling of Death and Death-In-Life... I could go on and on. The language is so rich, and the poet's comments make the content more clear for anyone who becomes confused. The illustrations of this edition are beautiful and definately complement the text. This is a haunting poem that you will want to read again and again. If you have not read it before, do yourself a favor and find a copy.

I have to disagree with the bad rap this poem often gets. Sure, Coleridge's 4-3-4-3 meter is simple and easily imitable, but that does not change the fact that he used the meter masterfully, that his verse is beautiful and his imagery splendid (even without the woodcuts). The story is fairly simple, though its effect is somewhat chilling. Yes, I've even heard the Mariner compared to Popeye with a dead bird around his neck. But all joking aside, this is a beautiful poem.

On the surface, this may just seem to be a simple poem by an English Romantic. But there is so much more. There is a lesson to be learned, one of respect for God's creatures and for all of creation. This is certainly a Romantic point of view, and Coleridge puts it forth very nicely in this poem.

This is a great beginning poem for novices of poetry, for beginners and for people who dislike poetry if it doesn't rhyme and have a definite rhythm. This is definitely Coleridge's best poem, one that everyone should be familiar with. This version with the woodcuts makes for a very attractive package--the illustrations add nicely to the poems overall effect.

"It is the moment of non-construction, disclosing the absentation of actuality from the concept in part through its invitation to emphasize, in reading, the helplessness--rather than the will to power--of its fall into conceptuality."

That is pretty much the kind of thing you can expect from this book--formulations that follow the meandering course of Paul Fry's thought, as he stumbles flailing after his own pretty, fluttering reflection on the "occasion of reading", which--alas--escapes both him and us. Paul Fry stands blinking in the sunlight, his butterfly net empty and his tongue unloosened.

A Defense of Poetry is possibly the most irrelevant book I've ever read or even looked at. Paul Fry needs to rouse himself from his stupor and realize that his entire career has been a very long waste of time.

The "occasion" of writing: how pretty!