The making of poetry : Coleridge, the Wordsworths and their year of marvels
Nicolson, Adam, 1957-2019
Books
It is the most famous year in English poetry. Out of it came The Ancient Mariner and `Kubla Khan', as well as Coleridge's unmatched hymns to friendship and fatherhood, Wordsworth's revolutionary verses in Lyrical Ballads and the greatness of `Tintern Abbey', his paean to the unity of soul and cosmos, love and understanding. Adam Nicolson tells the story, almost day by day, of the year in the late 1790s that Coleridge, Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and an ever-shifting cast of friends, dependants and acolytes spent together in the Quantock Hills in Somerset. What emerges is a portrait of these great figures as young people, troubled, ambitious, dreaming of a vision of wholeness, knowing they had greatness in them but still in urgent search of the paths towards it. The poetry they made was not from settled conclusions but from the adventure on which they were all embarked, seeing what they wrote as a way of stripping away all the dead matter, exfoliating consciousness, penetrating its depths.
Main title:
Imprint:
London : William Collins, 2019.
Collation:
332p. : ills (color) ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN:
9780008126476 (hbk)
Dewey class:
821.609
Language:
English
Subject:
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Themes, motivesColeridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Homes and hauntsColeridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Criticism and interpretationWordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Themes, motivesWordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Homes and hauntsWordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Criticism and interpretationLiterary worksEnglish poetry -- 18th century -- History and criticismRomanticism -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th centurySeventeen ninety-eight, A.D.
BRN:
1206802