[rec. to] Coleridge and Contemplation. Peter Cheyne editor

Abstract

a thorough and comprehensive collection of essays by renowned scholars from different research backgrounds who put together their varied expertise to scrutinise Coleridge's philosophical, poetic, scientific and metaphysical thoughts (in poetry and prose) from a wide range of perspectives, but with a main focus centred on the idea of contemplation/meditation in his opus.The book acknowledges Coleridge's original and innovative work and constant and tireless study of the human being, from philosophy to many branches of what was to become 'science', from religion to politics, including Hinduism and the French Revolution, from Classical to musical, medical and physiological studies, including the workings of the psyche, often anticipating later psychology.Indeed, in studying the side-effects of laudanum on his mind and body, as Knight mentions, he was a "careful follower of his symptoms and coiner of the word 'psychosomatic'" (91).Coleridge and Contemplation is divided into four parts, beginning with an in-depth analysis of Coleridge's "Poetics and Aesthetics" (Part I), with contributions on contemplation, Le Simplegadi