Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
4 p.
Publication Date
2006
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Source Publication
European Romantic Review
Source ISSN
1050-9585
Original Item ID
doi: 10.1080/10509580600968099
Abstract
Few students of Coleridge know the dark, mysterious poetry of the later years better than Eric Wilson. And even fewer have a stronger command of the scholarship on this poetry. Understandably, the work of the pre-1800 years, especially the great trio of the imaginative and the supernatural—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan—and the earlier conversation poems, have received major critical attention. Yet although these poems bring to the fore the troubling presence of Sara in “Eolian Harp” and the distressing violations of the Mariner and of the innocent Christabel by the serpent-woman Geraldine, they nevertheless celebrate ultimately the power of mind, of imagination to create a harmony in the midst of diversity, to achieve a sympathetic oneness with the beauty of nature. They conclude with moments of blessing and redemption far different from the conclusions of the later poems. And Wilson has a keen ear for these moments.
Recommended Citation
Hoeveler, Diane, "Review of Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850, edited by Christopher John Murray; and A Companion to European Romanticism, edited by Michael Ferber" (2006). English Faculty Research and Publications. 60.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_fac/60
Comments
Accepted version. European Romantic Review, Vol. 17, No. 4 (2006): 508-511. DOI. © 2006 Taylor & Francis (Routledge). Used with permission.