The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Including Poems and Versions of Poems Now Published for the First Time

This scholarly edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s verse was assembled to provide a definitive account of his poetic development. Published in the early 20th century, the collection sought to rectify the fragmented nature of previous anthologies by gathering not only his well-known canonical works but also a significant body of previously unpublished drafts and early versions of his poems. It emerged during a period of intense editorial focus on Romantic-era literature, reflecting a desire among academics to preserve the fluidity of Coleridge's creative process.

The editorial work was guided by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, a grandson of the poet, who brought both family archives and a rigorous bibliographic approach to the project. His primary goal was to provide a chronological and comprehensive survey of the poet's career, documenting stylistic evolutions and textual variations that had previously been obscured. The edition was well received by contemporary critics as a landmark contribution to nineteenth-century literary studies, noted for its meticulous attention to manuscript evidence and its success in establishing a reliable baseline for future research.