Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Critical Readings

Leoline Abandons Christabel for Geraldine

CR Episode 21: Christabel, Part II

4 November 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel concludes their reading of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christabel" by considering the function of Leoline's overabundant grief, examining the nature of Geraldine's magical influence, and speculating about possible conclusions to the poem.

The Bed Scene from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Christabel

CR Episode 20: Christabel, Part I

28 October 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel welcomes James Smoker, a Coleridge scholar at the University of St. Andrews, to discuss Coleridge, Christian Theology, the British Romantics, and the first part of Christabel.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Handwritten Manuscript of Kubla Khan

CR Episode 19: Coleridge’s Dream Poems

21 October 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses theological readings of three of Coleridge's most famous poems, all of which share the occasion of sleep as central to their action: 'Kubla Khan; or, the Vision in a Dream'; 'The Pains of Sleep'; and, 'This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison'.

The Seraphs in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Gustav Dore

CR Episode 18: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part II

14 October 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses the second half of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with particular attention given to the theology of the Mariner's sin, contrition, and absolution, and the relation of that theology to and within the Romantic conception of Nature.

The Albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Gustave Dore

CR Episode 17: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part I

7 October 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses the first three parts of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, proposing the Ancient Mariner as a figure in transition from the Enlightenment to Romanticism, and including overviews of Critical moves and an analogy to T. S. Eliot.

CR Episode 16: Lyrical Ballads, Part II

30 September 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel begins to cross over from Wordsworth to Coleridge in the second of three episodes focused on Lyrical Ballads, addressing the role of nature, emotional state, and parenthood in both Wordsworth's "The Mad Mother" and Coleridge's "The Nightingale".

CR Episode 15: Lyrical Ballads, Part I

23 September 2019 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses Romanticism and begins a three-week examination of selected poems from Lyrical Ballads, the experimental collection by Wordsworth and Coleridge. This week's selections are Wordsworth's "The Female Vagrant" and "Tintern Abbey".