The Sacred River

So begins one of the most famous and haunting poems of English literature. But what is the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge actually talking about? Underneath the wild and visionary language is a very astute description of the way the human imagination works, in both its perceptive and creative capacities. More than simply the realm of make-believe, he saw the imagination as a powerful and necessary faculty of the mind with which we apprehend the meaning of everything we see.

Gathering together eleven of Coleridge’s most famous poems, such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, along with selections from his prose writings, this collection presents the reader with a substantial set of texts on the nature and function of the human imagination written by one of the most insightful poets and philosophers of the early nineteenth century. With a rigorous introduction explaining Coleridge’s theory of the imagination, this volume is a valuable resource for all who want to know how to read the world around us.

The Ancient Mariner is printed twice, line for line on facing pages: the first version of 1798 on the left, the final version of 1834, with its marginal glosses, on the right. Joe Carlson adds a biography that is honest about Coleridge’s opium, his marriage and his faith, and a short guide to each poem.