This is the first book-length study to read the "Ancient Mariner" as "poetry," in Coleridge's own particular sense of the word. Using a combination of close reading and broad historical considerations, reception theory, and book history, Mays surveys the poem's continuing lifein illustrated editions and educational textbooks;
J. C. C. Mays is Professor Emeritus of English and American Literature at University College Dublin, Ireland.
Preface.- Taking Bearings, Setting a Course.- What Does the Poem Do?.- As a Poem of the Imagination.- Wordsworth as Collaborator and Contributor.- The Shadow Cast by Wordsworth.- Revision, Gloss, Choice.- A Reputation by Default.- Today and To Do.- Appendix 1: "Ancient Mariner "1798 Version.- Appendix 2: Reading "Alice du Clós", and for the Birds.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.
“All present and future readers of Coleridge’s poetry will be indebted to Mays for having so thoroughly and incisively taken the measure of the language of Coleridge’s poetry … .” (Charles Mahoney, Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 58 (1), 2019)