Table Of ContentOrganising Poetry
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ORGANISING POETRY
1790 1798
The Coleridge Circle, –
DAVID FAIRER
1
3
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For Adam
Acknowledgements
Igratefullyacknowledgethepermissionofthefollowingpublishersand
editorstoinclude materialthathasappearedinanearlierformelsewhere:a
versionofChapter4firstappearedasatributetoRogerLonsdaleinTradition
in Transition: Women Writers, Marginal Texts, and the Eighteenth-Century
Canon, ed. Alvaro Ribeiro and James G. Basker (Oxford University Press,
1996),314–38;Chapter5isextendedfromtheessayinRobertSoutheyand
theContextsofEnglishRomanticism,ed.LyndaPratt(Ashgate,2006),1–17;
Chapter 6 has been developed from the essay in Thomas Chatterton and
Romantic Culture, ed. Nick Groom (Macmillan, 1999), 228–52; Chapter 8
originallyappeared inStudies inRomanticism, 41 (Winter 2002),585–604,
and is here reproduced by permission of the Trustees of Boston University;
parts of Chapters 10 and 11 were published respectively in The Coleridge
Bulletin,ns21(Spring2003),20–33,andTheCharlesLambBulletin,ns131
(July2005),62–75;asubstantialpartofChapter3wasincludedin‘Gapsand
Tracings:GothicLinesinthe1790s’,deliveredastheinauguralLandorLec-
ture,UniversityofAberystwyth,andwasprintedintheirpamphletmonograph
series.Mywarmthankstoall.Partsofmanychapterswerefirsttestedoutin
lecturesandpapersdeliveredtotheWordsworthSummerConference,Gras-
mere; the International Coleridge Conference, Cannington, Somerset; the
Friends of Coleridge Weekend, Kilve; the Charles Lamb Society; the Eight-
eenth-Century Seminar, Smith College, Northampton, MA; the American
SocietyforEighteenth-CenturyStudiesAnnualMeetings,atAustin,Montreal,
andAtlanta;theEighteenth-CenturyWorldsSeminar,UniversityofLiverpool;
the Eighteenth-Century/Romantic Research group, University of Exeter; the
Romantic Realignments Seminar, University of Oxford; and the Midlands
Romantic seminar, University of Nottingham. I am grateful for permissions
toreproducematerial,obtainedasfollows:threeplatesfromPiranesi’sPrima
PartediArchittetureandCarcerid’Invenzione(AshmoleanMuseum,Oxford);
chart from Joseph Priestley’s A Description of a New Chart of History
(BodleianLibrary,Oxford);apagefromLaurenceSterne’sTristramShandy
(Leeds University Library); the engraved drawing of Cowper’s Oak (Leeds
University Library); John Flaxman’s drawing, ‘Thomas Chatterton Taking
the Bowl of Poison from the Spirit of Despair’ (Department of Prints and
Drawings,BritishMuseum);theChattertonHandkerchief(BritishLibrary);
and the painting ‘Monastery Ruins at Eldena’ by C. D. Friedrich (Alte
Nationalgalerie, Berlin). I thank the staff of the Brotherton Collection and
Acknowledgements vii
Special Collections, University of Leeds, especially Chris Sheppard and
Oliver Pickering, for their generous research support of various kinds over
theyears.Thelibrary’sexcellentresourceshavebeenagreatasset.
Nostudyofthe‘organic’,asre-conceptualisedhere,canfailtobeaware
of how other texts of all kinds have fed into it. Over the years the most
helpful critics have often been those from whom I have differed most
markedly, and in the notes I have tried to acknowledge my critical debts
and divergences. But the influence of some scholars has reverberated more
widely through this book, and I am conscious of having pursued further
(perhaps further than they would go themselves) the implications of their
ideas and methods. In this way I am indebted to the late Paul Magnuson’s
focus on the immediate contexts of ‘Romantic’ texts; to Nicholas Roe’s
alertnesstothesubtlepoliticallanguagesofthe1790s;toMichaelO’Neill’s
closereadings of‘self-conscious poems’;andtoLucyNewlyn’shandlingof
poeticallusionandtheemergenceofmorecommunalmeanings.Inattempt-
ing to free this 1790s poetry, especially Coleridge’s, from the formal de-
mandsofunityandsystem,andtorecoveraconceptof‘form’thatismore
various, dynamic, and accommodating, I have been heartened by the ex-
amples of Seamus Perry writing on Coleridge’s creative ‘double-minded-
ness’,andofSusanWolfsononColeridgeandthesimile.
In bringing this study to completion I owe a huge thank you to Andrew
McNeillie of Oxford University Press, who first welcomed proposals for a
bookofthiskind,andwhohaseversincegivenithisunstintingsupport.My
warm acknowledgements are due to the School of English, University of
Leeds, for supporting the project as it has developed: much of the writing
wasdoneduringayear’sresearchleavein2007–8awardedbytheSchooland
theFacultyofArtscombined.Colleagueshavebeengenerouswiththeirhelp:
JohnWhalehasbeenathoughtfulandinspirationalguideateverystage,anda
rigorouscriticofseveralchapters;andotherpartsofthebookhavebenefited
fromtheadviceandexpertiseofShirleyChew,RobertJones,andSimonSwift.
Discussing Coleridge and his friends over several years with Gurion Taussig
wasadelight,andhisColeridgeandtheIdeaofFriendship,developedfrom
hisLeedsPh.D.,hashadaformativeinfluenceonmyownstudy.Ishallalways
beindebtedtoNicholasRoe,whofirstencouragedmetoextendmysightsto
the1790s,anddrewarecalcitranteighteenth-centuryscholartoWordsworth
andColeridge.ThelateReggieWattersfirstinvitedmetospeakonColeridge
and Chatterton, and since then the Friends of Coleridge have provided the
mostcongenialcontextforhardscholarlythoughtaboutallaspectsofSTC’s
work:PaulCheshire’sknowledgeofColeridge’smanuscriptshasbeenofreal
help,ashasGrahamDavidson’shumaneandcommittedunderstandingofthe
more metaphysical Coleridge. Other friends have been a direct intellectual
stimulus:JuanChristianPelliceronthegeorgic;NickGroomonChatterton;
LyndaPrattonSouthey;andFelicityJamesonLambandLloyd.I’mespecially
gratefultoJaneStablerforyearsofencouragementandcriticalguidance,and
viii Acknowledgements
forcommentingonandimprovingmuchofthismaterialintypescript.Adam
Brayhasbeenmyidealreaderand‘bestprop’whilethebookhastakenshape.
Because this is a study of (albeit very late) eighteenth-century poetry it is
appropriate to record that Paul Hunter, Roger Lonsdale, John Sitter, and
Howard Weinbrot continue to be the best kind of scholarly models. I also
thank,forhelpofvariouskinds,KellyGrovier,JeffreyHipolito,SarahPoynt-
ing,WolframSchmidgen,andColinWinborn.ForO.U.P.,thethoughtfulness
and expertise of Claire Thompson, Charles Lauder, and Andrew Hawkey
have guided the book through its later stages. Certainly not the least of
theseacknowledgementsmustfinallybetoJ.C.C.Mays,whosecomprehen-
sivescholarshiponColeridge’spoemsinthegreatBollingeneditionhasbeen
invaluable.
Contents
ListofIllustrations xi
ListofAbbreviations xiii
Introduction:‘onecommonlife’ 1
I
1. Organicism:TheIdealistTradition 15
2. OrganicConstitutions:Identity 33
3. OrganicConstitutions:History 58
II
4. ‘Sweetnativestream!’:ApproachingTinternAbbey 95
5. Southey’sLiteraryHistory:PoetryinRetrospect 118
6. BetweenYouthandAge:Coleridge’s‘Monodyonthe
DeathofChatterton’,1790–6 138
7. PuttingHisPoemsTogether:Coleridge’sFirstVolume(1796) 160
8. Coleridge’sSonnetsfromVariousAuthors(1796):ALost
ConversationPoem? 192
9. OrganisingFriendship:Coleridge,Lamb,andLloyd 211
10. AMatterofEmphasis:ColeridgeandThelwall,1796–7 236
