Coleridge and Communication

The Ancient Mariner firmly holds his chosen listener with his irresistibly glittering eye, whereas the visionary poet-figure of "Kubla Khan" is denied hearing by his daunted fellow men. These two scenes mark the wide spectrum between communication as penetrative though forcible impartation on the one hand and ingenious though miscarrying performance on the other. Coleridge and Communication discovers and argues that communication in the multeity of its aspects, the bliss of its achievement, and the frustration of its failure is a major subject that interfuses the major portions of the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The study investigates the young poet's quest for social and spiritual community, dissects the critic and autobiographist's endeavour to reinvent his image as a public author, cogitates the periodical writer's method of instruction, and traces the legendary phenomenon of Coleridge the talker, and thereby casts a fresh look at Coleridge's manifold roles as poet, journalist, theorist and conversationalist.