This selection contains all the poems from Coleridge’s own collected edition of 1828, supplemented by many others of considerable value which appeared posthumously. In general the arrangement is chronological, each poem or group of poems being accompanied by biographical information, and where necessary a note on interpretation.

          Included are the four great poems which give Coleridge’s permanent place in poetry – The Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan and Dejection. The Everyman edition is the first to print Dejection alongside the important verse Letter to Sara Hutchinson; it also includes in appendices the text of the early Crewe manuscript of Kubla Khan and that of The Ancient Mariner as originally published in 1798, with a note on Coleridge’s changes to it over the years. A number of other poems from manuscript have been checked against originals or recent printed versions.