3. Is the Soul in existence before the body which it is to inhabit? 4. What forces are constantly at work to crush and suppress a child's imaginative power? 5. In what way is the shepherd boy the embodiment of joy? 6. What phases of Nature are most attractive to all people in general? 7. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That stands and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more." ("Macbeth") Find passages in Wordsworth's poem which contradict this sentiment. 8. Is this the best of his poems here selected? Why? 9. Is the simplicity of style effective? How? 10. Contrast with "We are Seven"; why is there so marked a simplicity in the lesser poem? FOR REFERENCE "Wordsworth" ("English Men of Letters").--MYERS. "Story-Lives of Great Authors."--ROWBOTHAM. "Essays in Criticism."--ARNOLD. "Biographia Literaria."--COLERIDGE. "The Makers of Modern English."--DAWSON. "Essays on the Poets."--DE QUINCEY. "The Age of Wordsworth" ("Handbooks of English Literature").--HERFORD. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) A victim of the opium habit after the age of thirty and by nature irresolute and dreamy, Coleridge led a wandering life, leaving his family with his friend Southey. Most of his poetry, small in volume, though unexcelled in quality, was written before he was thirty, "The Ancient Mariner," his first poem, having been composed at the age of twenty-four. After this he devoted himself for the most part to metaphysical speculation of no permanent value. He excelled all other writers of his day in dealing with the supernatural. "The Ancient Mariner," his masterpiece, is a successful attempt to revive the metrical ballad of the middle ages. By the use of rubrics the medieval effect is heightened, while the introduction of the wedding guest relieves the credibility of the reader by making of an improbable account simply 'a tale that is told.' He lived for some time at Keswick in Cumberland near its group of celebrated lakes, where Wordsworth and Southey also resided, and hence the appellation of "Lake Poets," given to the three distinguished friends. Joining with Wordsworth in 1798 in the publication of a little volume of verse, "Lyrical Ballads," he became one of the first to give voice to the movement known as Romanticism. THE MAN 1. What influence had Coleridge on the literature of his day? 2. What is said of him as a conversationalist? As a critic? III, 92 ff. 3. Why is he known as one of the "Lake Poets"? 4. Was he more useful to his friends than they to him, or _vice versa_? 5. To what do you attribute the early decline of his poetic powers? 6. What other English writer of the same period was addicted to the opium habit? IV, 171. 7. What great mental defect militated most against Coleridge's success? III, 94. 8. What traits of character especially endeared him to his friends?