摘要:The present paper is an attempt to explore Coleridge's critical potentialities and significant contributions to literary theory and criticism. The first question that will be stressed here is the reasons, conscious and unconscious alike, that have driven a leading romantic poet of his caliber to shift from verse writing to devote his time almost exclusively to criticism, public culture, religion or politics. Of equal interest is the nature of his critical enterprise whether theoretical or practical and its intellectual, epistemological and artistic foundations. The final section is a general view of the impact his critical writings have left on the literary scene and the different reactions writers hold toward his practices.