Poem of the week: Duty Surviving Self-Love by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
This austere reflection on lost friendships was written in the poet’s later years as he fought opium addiction
March 2024
Country diary
Country diary: Myth and inspiration spring forth from this spot
Glenthorne, Devon: Many before me have passed this lush spot with its marble-basin fountain – the cross is a clue to one particular passerby, according to folklore
September 2023
Welsh mansion that inspired Wordsworth and Coleridge on the verge of collapse
Piercefield House, a Grade II-listed mansion that may have been the prototype for Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, is now ‘seriously distressed’
March 2023
Brief letters
Grim truth that tarnishes Drumlanrig’s treasures
Export ban on Coleridge anti-slavery manuscript as British buyer sought
October 2022
From Romantics to 21st century radicals: Coleridge, Shelley and the roots of communal living
Communes are on the rise, but we’ve been here before – 200 years ago Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his poet friends were pinning their hopes on the collective good
March 2022
In Somerset did Kubla Khan: Coleridge manuscript returns to poem’s source
Taunton welcomes handwritten version of work poet said came to him after drug-induced reverie in nearby farmhouse
November 2021
The Guardian view on William Blake’s cottage: don’t let it crumble
Editorial: Artists’ homes are precious for the things they tell us about the lives and times of those who worked in them
September 2021
The Guardian view on contemplative silence: there’s a lot to be said for it
Editorial: English Heritage is trialling a daily hour of stillness and reflection at its monastic sites. It is a bold experiment that deserves to succeed
August 2021
Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Phantom or Fact: A Dialogue in Verse by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Written towards the end of the poet’s life, this mysterious exchange shows him reflecting on the ‘spirit’ he has lost
April 2020
Steven Poole's word of the week
From wars to wages: how the word 'furlough' gained currency
Workers during the coronavirus crisis are not the first to find themselves ‘furloughed’
Why Willem Dafoe, Iggy Pop and more are reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to us
Slaver, ecocide, plague ... the warnings of Coleridge’s poem resound down the ages. Now 40 actors, musicians and authors are performing in a daily mass-reading
Lockdown culture
All alone online: Iggy Pop and Jeremy Irons lead mass Ancient Mariner reading
Streaming daily, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 2020 incarnation also features Marianne Faithfull and Tilda Swinton as readers, set against sound and fine art
February 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 random encounters in literature
Rural idyll where Ancient Mariner met Kubla Khan saved for nation
June 2019
The Making of Poetry by Adam Nicholson review – Coleridge and Wordsworth's year
How a year spent in the Quantocks and a clash of personalities produced some world famous poems
May 2019
Book of the day
The Making of Poetry by Adam Nicolson review – when Coleridge met the Wordsworths
This investigation into the birth of the Romantic movement is the perfect marriage of poetry and place
March 2019
Country diary
Country diary: a wild walk in Wales, in the footsteps of Coleridge
Llangynog, Powys: Bluebell leaves are emerging through the bracken and parsley fern adorns the scree-slopes
September 2018
Out of my mind: Sarah Perry on writing under the influence of drugs
When a medical condition left her in agony, The Essex Serpent author was prescribed powerful opiates. They gave her terrifying visions - and a new insight into literary drug culture
April 2018
Brief letters
Everyone looks at pictures of puppies
Brief letters: Parliament and Syria | Dostoyevsky at the movies | Uses of dogs | Coleridge remains | Wills and smoking
