Cambridge University Press Coleridge and the Philosophy of Poetic Form: 106 (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism, Series Number 106)

Ewan James Jones argues that Coleridge engaged most significantly with philosophy not through systematic argument, but in verse. Jones carries this argument through a series of sustained close readings, both of canonical texts such as Christabel and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and also of less familiar verse, such as Limbo. Such work shows that the essential elements of poetic expression - a poem's metre, rhythm, rhyme and other such formal features - enabled Coleridge to think in an original and distinctive manner, which his systematic philosophy impeded. Attentiveness to such formal features, which has for some time been overlooked in Coleridge scholarship, permits a rethinking of the relationship between eighteenth-century verse and philosophy more broadly, as it engages with issues including affect, materiality and self-identity. Coleridge's poetic thinking, Jones argues, both consolidates and radicalises the current literary critical rediscovery of form. Review '… demonstrate[s] the sheer range of Coleridge's reach - Jones concentrates on his investment in the history of philosophy … and improve[s] our understanding of just how subtle and essential Coleridge's interdisciplinarity is for anyone who wishes to engage thoroughly with his thought.' Philip Aherne, The BARS Review Book Description This book argues that Coleridge's most important philosophical ideas were expressed not through theoretical argument but through his poems. About the Author Ewan James Jones is Thole Research Fellow at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.