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| 1/9/1323 |
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Marco Polo in Xanadu and New York
On this day in 1324 Marco Polo died in Venice. The Travels of Marco Polo, dictated by Polo several years after his return from decades in the land of Kublai Khan, became an influential book in Renaissance Europe -- though some publishers were so dubious of the hyperbole that they titled the book, "The Million Lies." The path to Xanadu led to New York via Eugene O'Neill: his Marco Millions opened on Broadway, this day in 1928. |
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| 7/25/1834 |
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Coleridge's "Great and Useless Genius" read it now!
On this day in 1834 Samuel Taylor Coleridge died of heart disease at the age of sixty-one. In his last years, Coleridge continued to write in his Christian-philosophical-sage vein, and to enthrall by his conversation, but he was decades away from his great poems and literary criticism. Explanations of the "great and useless genius" included too little "resolution" and too much opium. |
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| 9/30/1868 |
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Little Women, Coleridge, Utopia
On this day in 1868 Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was published. It was an immediate best seller, bringing the thirty-five-year-old Alcott a popularity she did not expect: "I plod away, though I don't really enjoy this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters, but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it." |
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| 11/2/1734 |
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Boone, Byron & Coleridge
On this day in 1734 Daniel Boone was born. Boone was an inspiration for not just the romantic legends but the Romantic poets. Byron thought him "happiest amongst mortals anywhere," if not an Adam in Eden:
...Simple, serene, the antipodes of Shame,
Which Hate nor Envy e'er could tinge with wrong;
An active hermit, even in the age the child
Of Nature--or the Man of Ross run wild.... |
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| 11/13/1797 |
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Coleridge, Mariner, Albatross
On this day in 1797 William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge began a several days' walk in the Quantock Hills of Somerset, during which they would conceive "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." The original goal was a gothic pot-boiler to help pay for their vacation; left in Coleridge's hands, the tale evolved from a quick money-maker to a consuming, five-months' labor, within which lay many of his philosophical and psychological concerns. |
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"This Lime-tree Bower My Prison"
The Atlantic Monthly presents audio recordings of Steven Cramer, Stanley Plumly and Tom Sleigh reading a poem by S. T. Coleridge. "Less celebrated than 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Kahn,'" Steven Cramer writes in his introduction, "Samuel Taylor Coleridge's conversation poems have influenced modern poetry more strongly than those supernatural anthology pieces." |  | Academy of American Poets
Coleridge biography, poetry, bibliography, and links. Selected poems include "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
"In 1795 Coleridge befriended William Wordsworth, who greatly influenced Coleridge's verse. Coleridge, whose early work was celebratory and conventional, began writing in a more natural style. In his 'conversation poems,' such as 'The Eolian Harp' and 'This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison,' Coleridge used his intimate friends and their experiences as subjects. The following year, Coleridge published his first volume of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, and began the first of ten issues of a liberal political publication entitled The Watchman. ... In 1798 the two men collaborated on a joint volume of poetry entitled Lyrical Ballads. The collection is considered the first great work of the Romantic school of poetry and contains Coleridge's famous poem, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.'" | | English-Literature.org
Find an essay that explores the opposition of the Romantics to Cartesian Dualism.
"When Wordsworth was developing his poetic theory or when Coleridge was searching for an ideal form, they were trying to repair the Cartesian rupture between the body and the mind. ... Wordsworth proclaimed that 'solitary objects...beheld/ In disconnection' are 'dead and spiritless', and division is opposed to man's proper spiritual disposition. The poet's mind - 'The perceiver', and nature 'The perceived', belonged to a distinct whole and hence could not be separated. As Wordsworth said 'all things live in us and we shall live/ In all things surrounding us'. Dualism according to Coleridge was a 'philosophy of death, and only in a dead nature can it hold good.'" | | S. T. Coleridge Archive
Collection of electronic texts including poetry, literary theory and criticism, political commentary and journalism, letters, and philosophical, scientific and other writings. Also features a concise life chronology, secondary material, and links to recommended S. T. C. resources. A Supplement to the Archive provides additional links and resources. | |
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The TinL masthead features photography by
Natasha D'Schommer
, and the book art featured is by Jim Rosenau.
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