A conversation poem is a genre in English poetry growing out of the close co-operation between
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
and
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
in the late 1790s. The name is applied particularly to the group of poems by Coleridge known as the
Conversation poems
The conversation poems are a group of at least eight poems composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) between 1795 and 1807. Each details a particular life experience which led to the poet's examination of nature and the role of poetry. Th ...
and covers others like them by Wordsworth, these poems being defined as addressing someone very close to the poet in "an informal but serious manner of deliberation that expands from a particular setting".
Other examples of such poems include Wordsworth's "
Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey
''Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey'' is a poem by William Wordsworth. The title, ''Lines Written'' (or ''Composed'') ''a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798'', is often abb ...
" and ''
The Prelude
''The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An Autobiographical Poem '' is an autobiographical poem in blank verse by the English poet William Wordsworth. Intended as the introduction to the more philosophical poem ''The Recluse,'' which Wordswort ...
''.
Sometimes the term is extended to informal verse epistles by other poets.
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References
{{Reflist
Genres of poetry
Poetic forms