Complete Poems

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Endowed with a surfeit of imagination and creativity, Coleridge endlessly revised his poetry, changing passages, adding new lines, and even writing several variations of the same poem. Faced with the challenge of putting together an authoritative collection, William Keach presents the final texts of all the poems published during Coleridge's lifetime and a substantial selection from the verse still in manuscript at his death, together with comprehensive, informative notes on significant variants. For four of the best-known poems -- "A Monody on the Death of Chatterton", "The Eolian Harp", "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", and "Dejection: An Ode" -- important earlier versions are included in full. The poems are arranged in chronological order of composition, in keeping with Coleridge's view that this best preserves "the interest which arises from watching the progress, maturity, and even the decay of genius".