Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

4to (10 x 8 in.; 253 x 203 mm).  Half-title, advertisement for Poems of Cowper on verso of p. 23; some foxing and spotting to half-title, title and a few other leaves, tears at right edge of half-title and title.  Old marbled paper wrappers; some rubbing.  Half calf gilt clamshell case.

Wise 13

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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First edition. A great Coleridge rarity. Only two copies have appeared at auction in the last fifty years, one in 1966 (lacking half-title)  and one in 2007.

The poem "Fears in Solitude" was written in April 1798 when Coleridge was visiting William and Dorothy Wordsworth.  France had threatened to invade Britain and feelings of alarm ran high.  Although Coleridge opposed the British government under Pitt, he sided with the British nation and urged his countrymen to protect their families against invasion.  Coleridge's critics claimed the poem was alarmist and even anti-British.  

This pamphlet collection also included "Frost at Midnight" and "France: an Ode." In later printings of the title poem, the lines attacking Pitt and British government were removed.

In December 1798, Coleridge wrote to Southey regarding the pamphlet, "There were not above two hundred copies sold."