With one of the most "Gothic" opening lines in all of Romantic poetry, followed by intimations of witchery and what may — or may not — be a lesbian lamia, this is one of the classic Romantic supernaturalist poems. [Etext Center, UVa]
A poem of magic and will and the creative imagination. [Etext Center, UVa]
[First published 1797; the revised version, which includes the added marginal gloss as well as changes to the text, was published in 1817. Etexts below are of the 1817 edition unless otherwise noted.]
STC's most well-known poem, this major contribution to the Romantic and Gothic traditions is a powerful rendition of the Romantic quest, a journey of suffering, expiation, guilt and the assertion of Self.
"The Pains of Sleep" [1803]
A powerful poetic glimpse into a troubled mind, Gothic in its imagery and intensity. [Etext Center, UVa]
"Dejection: An Ode" [1802]
STC could struggle with despair and a sort of proto-existentialist gloom like no other Romantic poet (though John Clare comes close), and in these works Coleridge gives us dark glimpses into Romantic understandings of the mind and the emotions, a process begun by the Gothic. [Etext Center, UVa]
"Despair" [1810]
As the title indicates.... [Etext Center, UVa]
Ch. XIV of the Biographia Literaria
This section of STC's major non-poetic work has some bearing on his "Gothic" poems and his theory of supernaturalist literature. [Michael Gamer, U Penn]
STC's Reviews of Gothic Novels.
The review of The Monk is believed to be authentic; the authorship of the other reviews is in dispute, and, in the case of the reviews of The Italian and The Mysteries of Udolpho, it is certain that STC was not the author. [Michael Gamer, U Penn]
[R. J. C. Watt, U of Dundee]