Coleridge's Later Poetry

The poems that Coleridge wrote after his 'golden' period are seldom studied or anthologized. Yet among the poems written after his most famous works are many of quality and interest, addressing such universal themes as the nature of the self and the experience of unfulfilled love. Paley examines the later verse in the context of Coleridge's Oeuvre, discusses what characterizes it and looks at why the poet felt he had to develop distinctively different modes of writing for these works. 'To William Wordsworth' is presented as a transitional poem, exhibiting the vatic quality of earlier poems even while declaring that this quality must be abandoned. Morton D. Paley then explores the poetry of the abyss (which he terms 'The Limbo Constellation'), and this is followed by poems on the theme of the self and of love. Culminating in an examination of the role of epitaphs in the later works, the author concludes with a study of the epitaph which Coleridge wrote for himself.