Coleridge's Literary Influence

Abstract

This article examines the literary influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It explains that Coleridge's achievements are so varied and his literary influence so diverse that no generalization can be made. There is no single distinctive Coleridgean idiom or manner for later poets to appropriate or to reject. But among Coleridge's contemporaries, it was William Wordsworth who felt the impact most momentously. The article suggests that Wordsworth would not have become Wordsworth had he evaded Coleridge's sway.