‘A Hare in every Nettle’

Coleridge’s prose represents the trace and track of his mind in action. It records the intricate processes, the inner workshop of thinking and feeling: fertile, at times rapid, at times digressing, working not so much by direct lines as by sideways and encompassing motions, though always towards a goal, yet willing to put aside that goal, at least temporarily, for a richer one discovered on the way. In notebooks, letters, essays, criticism, journalism, religious and spiritual writing, in arguments against slavery and child labour—always displaying a wealth and love of words in their richness and distinctions (and coining many of his own that have entered the language)—his prose registers no formulated catechism of thought. He writes in multiple styles. His compositions embody a flexible method subsuming all his powers. Coleridge’s prose is an acquired taste but one worth acquiring.