Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Chatterton’s Romantic Afterlife

Few writers have had as influential an afterlife of Chatterton, both in the realms of literary criticism and of art. Indeed, much of Chatterton’s current critical reputation has come from the influence that he had on the next generations of Romantic writers that came after him. If the first reaction to Chatterton’s death were characterized by a sympathetic but critical attitude towards his life and works, the next generation of writers that defined the Romantic movement in the 1790s and early 1800s took an extremely idealized view of the young author, raising him to the level of a Romantic icon and hero. Recounting Chatterton's oversized influence on the generations of writers that came after him in her book Death Rights: Romantic Suicide, Race and the Bounds of Liberalism, Deanna Koretsky explains that

“Across the western world, artists and critics have paid homage to the ideal of Chatterton as a tragic ingénue who lost a fatal struggle for acceptance by a society incapable of comprehending his genius. In the British romantic canon, Chatterton’s suicide is recalled in Keats’s Endymion and Shelley’s Adonais, while Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent much of his adult life revising his ‘Monody on the Death of Thomas Chatterton.’” (Koretsky, 119). 

That element, of Chatterton being destroyed by a “society incapable of understanding his genius,” is an essential part of his legacy and posthumous image, and it's one that is familiar to western audiences used to the Romantic myth of the artist. Chatterton’s tragic suicide in fact becomes an essential part of his image and mythos, Koretsky going on to explains that “Without exception, these works characterize Chatterton as the quintessentially romantic artist whose suicide was the ultimate extension of his ‘genius.’” (119). 

But why? Why does Chatterton, as David Fairer says, offer “such a contrast between a brief and obscure life and a vast and powerful posthumous existence?” (228). Perhaps part of the answer can be found in Romantic poet S.T. Coleridge’s evolving tribute to Chatterton that he rewrote throughout his lifetime, the “Monody on the Death of Chatterton” (A “monody” is essentially another word for a lament). This is a strange and illustrative work for understanding Chatterton's continued and evolving appeal, as it was first written in 1790 when Coleridge was only 18 himself, the final version coming out in 1834 in a collection released the year before his death (Fairer, 228). This range over the course of the poet's life allows us to see different aspects of what may make Chatterton’s legacy appealing for an artist. An artist's motivations when they are young and first establishing their poetic voice may be completely different from what motivates them when they are older, but clearly Chatterton’s life and legacy retained a level of interest for Colerdige throughout these different phases of his life and career. 

These three versions of the poem are illustrative of many of the most important elements of Chatterton’s romantic afterlife. The Chatterton that the Romantics construct using his life legend is tragic and somewhat contradictory; he is at once a powerful and impressive artist, standing up against the classical establishment of his day, and a vulnerable child who is subject to the cruelties and whims of those around him more powerful than him (Cook, 194). Chatterton in both Coleridge’s poems and in other elegies to him is figured as an almost patron saint or martyr for a particular type of English literature, stripped of the classical standards of its time.

In this section we will look at three versions of Coleridge’s “Monody on the Death of Chatterton,” published in 1790, 1796, and 1834 respectively. These were each published under very different circumstances at very different points in Coleridge’s life. We will mainly focus on what he added and retained throughout these three versions.

“Monody on the Death of Chatterton” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge’s “Monody” is a fascinating poem partly for how it was continuously written and rewritten. The poem appeared in print eight separate times each time with minor or major revisions added. This exhibit will look closely at three distinct versions published by Coleridge in 1790, 1796 and 1834 respectively. Each version has some fascinating differences and similarities that show Coleridge’s (as well as the Romantic poet’s more generally) changing attitude towards Chatterton and his legend (David Fairer, 246).

The 1790 version of the poem was first written by Coleridge when he was a teeneager, copied out at the age of 17 (the same age that Chatterton himself died) into a teacher’s book as part of a writing project (Fairer, 230). The poem was published twice again in the 1790s, once in 1794 as a preface for an edition of Chatterton’s works, then in 1796 with heavy additions, which is the version this exhibit will look at. The final version of this poem here was finally published in 1834, the year before Coleridge’s death as part of a collection of his works Sibylline Leaves. Here, Coleridge made the decision to put the poem as part of his “Juvenile Works” section, without comment on the additions (Fairer, 231). Some scholars wonder if this is because Coleridge is embarrassed about this work and some of the sentiments in it. There are themes that remain throughout the different editions, though, all the way until the final version. The poem touches on themes of despair, imagination, but also hope and inspiration.

Coleridge’s “Monody” is a strange and unique poem, it covers a lot of territory. It is also part of the birth of Chatterton as the Romantic Icon. Here, Coleridge imagines Chatterton as part of his community, projecting him into his idealized community of contemporary artists.

“Monody on the Death of Chatterton” 1790 Version

According to Coleridge, he first started writing this poem when he was just 13, but it was first printed in the record in his schoolmaster’s book in 1790 when Coleridge was 18 as part of a school project. Scholar David Fairer notes that the Chatterton of this version is a much more active and powerful figure than he is in later editions (Fairer, 230). The poem begins: “Cold penury repress'd his noble rage, And froze the genial current of his soul” (1-2). This sets the tone for how the rest of the poem will go, Chatterton is a heroic figure resisting against a society that refuses to accept and understand his genius. He also a sort of muse for Coleridge, with the poet asking for Chatterton to:

Grant me, like thee, the lyre to sound,

Like thee, with fire divine to glow—

But ah! when rage the Waves of Woe, 

Grant me with firmer breast t'oppose their hate,

And soar beyond the storms with upright eye elate! (88-92). 

This also matches with where Coleridge was in life at the time, as a young artist first getting started, it makes sense that he would look to Chatterton for inspiration.

“Monody on the Death of Chatterton” 1796 Version

This version was first published in 1794 as a preface for the works of Thomas Chatterton released by so and so who was friends with Coleridge, then revised and re-released in this form in 1796. Immediately this version sets a very different tone from the original, 

When faint and sad o'er Sorrow's desart wild,

Slow journeys onward, poor Misfortune's child,

When fades each lovely form by Fancy drest,

And inly pines the self-consuming breast (1-4).

Here, Coleridge emphasizes Chatterton’s vulnerability, even as he asks for his patronage as a muse. Perhaps the most moving addition to the poem that Coleridge makes here is one that he retained into later editions, where he imagines himself in community with Chatterton: 

O, Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive!

Sure thou would’st spread the canvas to the gale, 

And love, with us, the tinkling team to drive 

O’er peaceful Freedom’s undivided dale;

And we, at sober eve, would round thee throng, 

Hanging, enraptur’d, on thy stately song!

And greet with smiles the young eyed Poesy

All deftly mask’d as hoar Antiquity (110-117).

Perhaps this also gives a clue as to why Chatterton as a figure was so special to the Romantics. The stance that Coleridge takes here of wanting to protect and nurture Chatterton’s talents as opposed to the cruelty that he was treated with in life is one that resonated with many other Romantic artists. This version can be found in the Mills library archives in a 1796 edition of Coleridge’s Poems on Various Subjects.

“Monody on the Death of Chatterton” 1834 Version

The final revised version of the poem, first published in 1829 then revised and re-released a year before Coleridge’s death in 1835 starts in an even more broad philosophical mode:

O what a wonder seems the fear of death, 

Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep, 

Babes, Children, Youths, and Men, 

Night following night for threescore years and ten!

But doubly strange, where life is but a breath

To sigh and pant with, up Want’s rugged steep (1-6).

Perhaps this is Coleridge as an older artist, struggling with the idea of death as he knows that his own life is coming to a close. Coleridge (and his nephew who edited this collection) chose to put this in the “Juvenile Works” section, which some critics have suggested points to Coleridge being somewhat embarrassed of this poem. Coleridge maintains and expands upon the theme that he started in the earlier versions of the poem though, exclaiming, “Poor Chatterton! he sorrows for thy fate / Who would have praised and loved thee, ere too late” (130-131). This suggests to me that he is not so much embarrassed by it as continually reflecting on it. Perhaps Chatterton means something different to him in his old age than he did when he was a teenager. 

Works Cited: 

Fairer, David. “Chatterton’s Poetic Afterlife, 1770-1794: A Context for Coleridge’s Monody.” Thomas Chatterton and Romantic Culture, edited by Nick Groom, Macmillan Press, 1999, pp. 228-252. 

Koretsky, Deanna P. Death Rights : Romantic Suicide, Race, and the Bounds of Liberalism. State University of New York Press, 2021.