Coleridge and the Hunger for Eternity

Coleridge’s view of eternity sees him create not quite a harmony, nor even a ‘reputable muddle’, but a ceaseless vacillation between ideas, possibilities, and ways of perceiving eternity alongside what Seamus Perry refers to as his ‘consistent double-mindedness’. This chapter views poetry as the primary mode for thinking about and through eternity where exploration works both in tandem and in tension with system building. Coleridge’s philosophical influences were of profound importance as powerful presences that sponsor the poetry’s vacillations, its confidence, and its vulnerability. But they cannot decode the poetry. Philosophical meaning is inextricable from its poetic method as Coleridge ‘increasingly positioned poetry in the philosophical role of representing the “system of fine arts”’. Poetry’s ‘philosophical role’ would not be systematic but explorative. This chapter traces the movement and telos of Coleridge’s poetry, viewing it as enamoured by and struggling with its apprehension of eternity.