Lyrical Ballads

Lyrical Ballads

Summary

Lyrical Ballads (1798) is a landmark collection of poems that marks the beginning of the English Romantic Movement in literature. Co-written by friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the collection broke away from traditional poetic form. Of the twenty-three poems, Wordsworth penned works such as 'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey' and 'The Idiot Boy' that use colloquial speech and take the everyday as their theme. The collection also includes Coleridge's greatest poem 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', a supernatural tale of a sailor's voyage.

About the authors

William Wordsworth

Learn More

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, philosopher and literary critic. Born in Ottery St Mary, Coleridge was educated at Christ's Hospital School, London where he began his friendship with Charles Lamb and began writing his first sonnets. With his friend William Wordsworth, Coleridge founded the Romantic Movement and became a member of the Lake Poets. In 1798 they co-wrote Lyrical Ballads, a landmark collection of poems that marked the beginning of Romanticism in English literature. The collection includes his greatest poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more