Ice and Spring: Coleridge’s Imaginative Education

Abstract

If the celebration, at his school, of the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth invites us to take yet another look at Coleridge’s schooldays, we need not confine ourselves to a detailed account of his career, or of the courses of study that were current in his time — particularly since others, over the years, have written and spoken so well on these topics. It may be better this time to begin with a broader question: What did Coleridge make of the school and what did the school make of him? The question is all the more inviting since the answer might throw some light on some corresponding questions, still unresolved, concerning Coleridge’s continuing relationship with the world at large.

A bicentenary lecture given at Christ’s Hospital.