"The Devil's Thoughts" is a

satirical poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

common metre Common metre or common measure—abbreviated as C. M. or CM—is a poetic metre consisting of four lines that alternate between iambic tetrameter (four metrical feet per line) and iambic trimeter (three metrical feet per line), with each foot cons ...

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in 1799, and expanded by Robert Southey in 1827 and retitled "The Devil's Walk". The narrative describes the Devil going walking and enjoying the sight of the various sins of mankind. The poem was imitated by Lord Byron in "The Devil's Drive", and by

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

in "

The Devil's Walk "The Devil's Walk: A Ballad" was a major poetical work published as a broadside by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812. The poem consisted of seven irregular ballad stanzas of 49 lines.Forman, Harry Buxton, 1877, p. 371 The poem was a satirical attack ...

".B. Dinah, ed. 2009.

Textual history

The poem was first published in the '' Morning Post'', on 6 September 1799. It was included in the 1828, 1829, and 1834 editions of Coleridge's poetry. It was printed separately as ''The Devil's Walk, a Poem, By Professor Porson, London, Marsh and Miller'', &c., in 1830. In 1827, by way of repudiating Porson's alleged authorship of ''The Devil's Thoughts'', Southey expanded the ''Devil's Thoughts'' of 1799 into a poem of fifty-seven stanzas entitled ''The Devil's Walk''. This version was printed in Southey's ''Poetical Works'', 1838, Vol. 3. pp. 87–100.E. H. Coleridge 1912. In the ''Morning Post'' the poem numbered fourteen stanzas; in 1828 and 1829 it was reduced to ten, and in 1834 enlarged to seventeen stanzas. Stanzas 3 and 14–16 of the text are not in the ''Morning Post.'' Stanzas 4 and 5 appeared as 3 and 4; stanza 6 as 9; stanza 7 as 5; stanza 8 as 10; stanza 9 as 8; stanza 10 as 6; stanza 11 as 7; stanza 17 as 14. In 1828 and 1829, the poem consisted of stanzas 1–9 of the established text, and of the concluding stanzas stanza 11 ('Old Nicholas', &c.) of the ''Morning Post'' version was not reprinted. Stanzas 14–16 of the text were first acknowledged by Coleridge in 1834.

References

Bibliography

* Birch, Dinah, ed. (2009)
"Devil's Thoughts, The"
In ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature''. 7th ed. Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 10 May 2022. * Coleridge, E. H. (1912). '' The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge''. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
"The Devil's Thoughts (1829 v. 1835)"
''

Romantic Circles ''Romantic Circles'' is an academic peer-reviewed website dedicated to the study of Romantic literature and culture, featuring online editions of many texts of the Romantic era, as well as essays devoted to Romantic literature, culture, and theo ...

''. University of Colorado Boulder. Retrieved 10 May 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Thoughts British poems 1799 poems Poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Poetry by Robert Southey