The conversation poems are a group of at least eight poems composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) between 1795 and 1807. Each details a particular life experience which led to the poet's examination of nature and the role of poetry. They describe virtuous conduct and man's obligation to God, nature and society, and ask if there is a place for simple appreciation of nature without having to actively dedicate one's life to altruism.
The conversation poems were grouped in the 20th century by literary critics who found similarity in focus, style and content. The series title was devised to describe verse where Coleridge incorporates conversational language while examining higher ideas of nature and morality. The works are held together by common themes, in particular they share meditations on nature and man's place in the universe. In each, Coleridge explores his idea of "One Life", a belief that people are spiritually connected through a universal relationship with God that joins all natural beings.
Critics have disagreed on which poem in the group is strongest. Frost at Midnight is usually held in high esteem, while Fears in Solitude is generally less well regarded.
Grouping 20th-century literary critics often categorise eight of Coleridge's poems (The Eolian Harp, Reflections on having left a Place of Retirement, This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison, Frost at Midnight, Fears in Solitude, The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem, Dejection: An Ode, To William Wordsworth) as a group, usually as his "conversation poems". The term was coined in 1928 by George McLean Harper, who used the subtitle of The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem (1798) to describe all eight.Harper 1928, 3–27Magnuson 2002, 45 Harper considered these poems as a form of blank verse that is "...more fluent and easy than Milton's, or any that had been written since Milton".Harper 1928, 11 In 2006, Robert Koelzer wrote about another aspect of this apparent "easiness", noting that "The Eolian Harp and The Nightingale maintain a middle register of speech, employing an idiomatic language that is capable of being construed as un-symbolic and un-musical: language that lets itself be taken as 'merely talk' rather than rapturous 'song'."Koelzer 2006, 68
M. H. Abrams wrote a broad description of the works in 1965. He observed that in each, the speaker "begins with a description of the landscape; an aspect or change of aspect in the landscape evokes a varied by integral process of memory, thought, anticipation, and feeling which remains closely intervolved with the outer scene. In the course of this meditation the lyric speaker achieves an insight, faces up to a tragic loss, comes to a moral decision, or resolves an emotional problem. Often the poem rounds itself to end where it began, at the outer scene, but with an altered mood and deepened understanding which is the result of the intervening meditation."Abrams 1965, 527 In fact, Abrams was describing both the conversation poems and later works influenced by them. Abrams' essay has been described as a "touchstone of literary criticism".Koelzer 2006, 67 As Paul Magnuson wrote in 2002, "Abrams credited Coleridge with originating what Abrams called the 'greater Romantic lyric', a genre that began with Coleridge's 'Conversation' poems, and included William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Stanzas Written in Dejection and John Keats's Ode to a Nightingale, and was a major influence on more modern lyrics by Matthew Arnold, Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, and W. H. Auden."
In 1966, George Watson devoted a chapter to the poems in his literary analysis Coleridge the Poet. Although stressing that the form was the only type of poetry Coleridge created, he admitted that "the name is both convenient and misleading. A conversation is an exchange; and these poems, a dozen or fewer, stretching from 'The Eolian Harp' [...] to 'To William Wordsworth] [...] and perhaps further, are plainly monologues. Those who met Coleridge in his later life, it is true, were inclined to find his conversation arrestingly one-sided, but this will hardly serve as an explanation of what is happening here."Watson 1966, 61
Poems
The Eolian Harp
My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o'ergrown With white-flower'd Jasmin, and the broad-leav'd Myrtle, (Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!) And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light, Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve Serenely brilliant (such should Wisdom be) Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents Snatch'd from yon bean-field! and the world so hushed! The stilly murmur of the distant Sea Tells us of silence. And that simplest Lute, Plac'd length-ways in the clasping casement, hark! How by the desultory breeze caress'd, Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover, It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs Tempt to repeat the wrong! [...] —"Eolian Harp" (lines 1–17)Coleridge 1921 pp. 100-102 Coleridge began work on The Eolian Harp in August 1795 during his engagement to Sara Fricker. It details their future union and was inspired by his visit to the house in Clevedon that would serve as their home after their wedding.Ashton 1997, 74 The poem is infused by the fact that Coleridge took an idealised view of his life with Fricker.Doughty 1981, 97
The Eolian Harp was published in the 1796 edition of Coleridge's poems and in all subsequent collections.Mays 2001, 231 Coleridge did not stop working on the poem after it was published. He expanded and reworked up until 1817.Holmes 1989, 113 It deals with themes of love, sex and marriage, but is not formed in the usual manner of a love poem. In contrast to the second poem in the series, Reflections, which hints at problems with the relationship, The Eolian Harp focuses on innocence and the poet's anticipation of his conjugal union.Ashton 1997, 75–76Yarlott 1967, 97
The poem creates a series of oppositional themes with aspects of nature representing each: seduction and innocence, order and chaos. These oppositions establish tension before the poem asks as to how they can be reconciled. These images and their being reconciled are described as analogous to the effects of an Aeolian harpRadley 1966, 44–46 and Coleridge's pantheistic feelings towards nature.Ashton 1997, 107 In terms of religion, The Eolian Harp describes the mind's desire to seek after the divine. His approach is similar to Ralph Cudworth's in The True Intellectual System of the Universe.Jasper 1985, 20 However, Coleridge's pantheistic feelings on nature are said to receive reproof from Fricker,Yarlott 1967, 118 and Coleridge returns to a more traditional view of God that deals more with faith than finding the divine within nature.Radley 1966, 46
Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement
Ah! quiet Dell! dear Cot, and Mount sublime! I was constrain'd to quit you. Was it right, While my unnumber'd brethren toil'd and bled, That I should dream away the entrusted hours On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart With feelings all too delicate for use? Sweet is the tear that from some Howard's eye Drops on the cheek of one he lifts from earth: And he that works me good with unmov'd face, Does it but half: he chills me while he aids, My benefactor, not my brother man! Yet even this, this cold beneficence Praise, praise it, O my Soul! oft as thou scann'st The sluggard Pity's vision-weaving tribe! Who sigh for Wretchedness, yet shun the Wretched, Nursing in some delicious solitude Their slothful loves and dainty sympathies! I therefore go, and join head, heart, and hand, Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fight Of Science, Freedom, and the Truth in Christ. —"Reflections" (lines 43–62)Coleridge 1921, pp. 106-108 Soon after his autumn 1795 marriage to Sara Fricker, Coleridge left their home in Clevedon, North Somerset. However, he felt guilt at his absence from his wife, and eventually went to live with her family at Redcliffe Hill, Bristol. As he completed The Eolian Harp—composed to commemorate his return to Clevedon—Coleridge composed Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement on his absence from Clevedon and later return to be with his wife at Bristol.Ashton 1997, 80–81 The poem was published in the October 1796 Monthly Magazine,Mays 2001, 260 under the title Reflections on Entering into Active Life. A poem Which Affects Not to be Poetry.Ashton 1997, 139 Reflections was included in Coleridge's 28 October 1797 collection of poems and the anthologies that followed.
The themes of Reflections are similar to those of The Eolian Harp. They are set in the same location, and both describe Coleridge's relationship with his wife and sexual desire.Holmes 1989, 103 The reflection on his life within the poem represent an unwillingness to accept his current idyllic life and a rejection of the conclusion drawn in The Eolian Harp. Although the land of Clevedon can bring one closer to God in Coleridge's view, he reflects on how one cannot simply exist in such an area but must actively seek out truth in order to fulfill God's will. The poem details how men feel a need to seek truth like a philosopher while also desiring to simply live in an idyllic natural state. The poem reconciles these desires by claiming that the pursuer of truth can still reflect back on his time when he was simply enjoying nature and God's presence.Radley 1966, 47–49
Reflections further differs from The Eolian Harp by looking at problems within Coleridge's marriage, especially when the union distracts him from the world outside of his home. The poem expresses desire for solitude and confinement and emphasises the difference between the worlds within and outside of the cottage. Overall, there is focus on the relationship of the private to the public spheres. When engaged with the outside world the narrator is separate from mankind, yet his focus is devoted to helping mankind, which contains religious and political components. The image of "One Life" compels him to abandon the sensual pleasures of the cottage, to pursue a path of altruism.Yarlott 1967, 97–98
This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison
Well, they are gone, and here must I remain, This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost Beauties and feelings, such as would have been Most sweet to my remembrance even when age Had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile, Friends, whom I never more may meet again, On springy heath, along the hill-top edge, Wander in gladness, and wind down, perchance, To that still roaring dell, of which I told; —"This Lime-Tree Bower" (lines 1–9)Coleridge 1921 pp. 178-181 During summer 1797, Coleridge spent time with many of his friends, including John Thelwall, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, Thomas Poole, and his wife Sara Fricker. During this time, he suffered an accident in which his foot was burned. As a result, he was left alone at Poole's property underneath a lime tree, while Lamb, the Wordsworths and his wife went on a journey across the Quantocks.Holmes 1989, 152–153
The first version of the poem was sent in a letter to Southey and was only 56 lines. The first published edition, in 1800, was 76 lines long.Ashton 1997, 105 The poem was revised and published under another name in Southey's Annual Anthology. A later revised edition was included in Sibylline Leaves, Coleridge's 1817 collection of poems.Mays 2001, 350