Coleridge’s poem “The Eolian Harp” is the earliest of a group of poems that have come to be known as “Conversation Poems” since George McLean Harper’s denomination of them as such in 1928. Distinguishing these from “the Mystery Poems”, i.e., “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Christabel”, and “Kubla Khan”, Harper also calls them “Poems of Friendship” because they are connected with specific intimate relationships and precise locations associated with those people whose presences—or absences—inform the poems. Harper identifies the following poems as “Conversation Poems” or “Poems of Friendship”: “The Eolian Harp”, “Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement”, “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”, “Frost at Midnight”, “Fears…
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Citation: Robinson, Daniel. "The Eolian Harp". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23049, accessed 26 November 2024.]
