Learner Resource 4: groupings and
connections
1. Match each of the poems on the right to one of the categories on the left. Poems may
overlap, but when matching, read the descriptions carefully and think about which
category fits best in terms of style, subject matter and form.
‘Kubla Khan’
Supernatural & antiquarian poems
This is the name often given to those
poems by Coleridge which do not focus on
nature for their setting. They often use the
ballad form, are set in the medieval period
and are concerned with the darker aspects
of human experience.
‘Reflections on Having Left a Place of
Retirement’
‘Youth and Age’
‘the Eolian Harp’
‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’
Conversation poems
This category takes its name from the
subtitle of ‘The Nightingale’. As the name
suggests, these poems are often
addressed to a certain recipient, as in a
conversation. They are generally in blank
verse and use nature to meditate.
‘Frost at Midnight’
‘The Nightingale’
‘Fears in Solitude’
‘Christabel’
‘Dejection: an Ode’
‘The Pains of Sleep’
Confessional poems
These poems are characterised by their
tendency to provide a means for the
speaker to ‘confess’ or present some form
of inner turmoil. While the ‘Conversation’
poems often grapple with the individual’s
place in society, these poems present the
speaker as a more isolated figure.
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Coleridge
‘To William Wordsworth’
‘The Knight’s Tomb’
‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’
‘Constancy to an Ideal Object’
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2. For each category, list 3-5 important themes that all the poems within that category have in common.
3. Use these themes to consider the following questions:

What similarities exist between the poems within each category?

How do the poems in each category differ from others within the same group?

Are there any thematic, formal or linguistic connections between poems from different
categories?
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