Title: Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
Selected Poems
(Gramercy Great Poets Series)
Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Genre: Poetry
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I read quite a bit of poetry, but it is usually of the epic (or at least narrative) variety with plenty of battles and/or bickering gods. Normally, too much overly-flowery poetry makes me want to gag. For some reason  last time I was at the library I decided to read some classic English poetry. Maybe I subconsciously wanted a balance to the blunt prose and academic jargon of the other two books I was reading…and maybe it was just because an episode of Blackadder that I had recently watched featured several foppish, stoned poets. Whatever the reason, I ended up reading a collection of Coleridge’s best poems.

Since he is one of the fathers of the romantic movement there was plenty of swooning and gushing over almost-divine nature, unrequited love, lost youth, etc. Some of the language was beautiful and some was gag-me-with-sentiment over the top, but I found the spiritual musings woven throughout the poems to be very interesting as they ranged from quasi-pantheism to dark, oppressive visions. I’ve had my fill of romantic-era poetry for a while, but it was a mostly enjoyable reading experience.