Mothers, Sons, and Poets in the Morning Post

Abstract

This chapter examines the connection between motherhood and genius in Coleridge’s Morning Post poetry. My reading of the ‘Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire’ differs from dismissive or parodic interpretations by relating Coleridge’s focus on poetic genius and maternal care to Wordsworth’s ‘blessed the infant babe’ passage in the Two-Part Prelude. In a daring move, considering the Duchess’s ostracized status, Coleridge forges a connection between Georgiana and the Virgin Mary in this poem, which was published on Christmas Eve 1799. The chapter includes a discussion of the ‘Portrait of Pitt’ as an autobiographical statement about Coleridge himself and a biographical assessment of Wordsworth, with reference to the infant prodigy passage in the Prelude. Finally, the chapter interprets two satirical epigrams, transliterated from the German, in terms of Coleridge’s despondency about his own poetic genius and his troubled emotional state about his wife’s pregnancy.