From Xanadu to Your Backyard: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Horticultural Legacy
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
July 25, 1834
On this day, dear readers, we bid farewell to the illustrious English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a luminary of the Romantic Movement and a cherished member of the Lake Poets.
Alongside his confidant William Wordsworth, Coleridge wove the tapestry of Romanticism that would drape the literary landscape of England for generations to come.
Coleridge, ever the wordsmith, possessed a keen appreciation for the musicality inherent in the world around him.
He recognized the poetic cadence in the most unexpected of places - even in the realm of taxonomy.
With his characteristic wit, he likened this scientific classification to the art of verse, declaring that taxonomy was simply:
the best words in the best order.
Is this not, my fellow gardeners, a sentiment we can apply to our own horticultural pursuits?
The careful selection and placement of plants in our gardens - is it not akin to choosing the perfect words for a poem?
In his enchanting poem "Youth and Age," Coleridge gifted us with lines that resonate deeply with those who cherish nature's beauty:
Flowers are lovely.
Love is flower-like.
Friendship is a sheltering tree.
Can you not picture it?
The delicate petals of love unfurling like a blossom, while friendship stands tall and strong, offering comfort and shade.
Perhaps Coleridge's most famous work, "Kubla Khan," transports us to the summer garden of a Mongolian emperor.
This 54-line masterpiece paints a vivid picture of Xanadu, where the palace and gardens stand in stark contrast to the ancient forests surrounding them.
Allow me to share a stanza that surely will set your imagination abloom:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Can you envision it, dear readers?
The winding streams, the fragrant trees, the pockets of sunlight dappling the forest floor - it's enough to inspire even the most novice of gardeners to reach for their trowels!
Yet, for all his romantic notions, Coleridge was not immune to the occasional bout of wry humor. It was he who famously quipped:
Summer has set in with its usual severity.
One can almost hear the good-natured grumble behind these words, perhaps uttered on a particularly sweltering day in the garden.
As we tend to our own plots this summer, let us remember Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
May we approach our gardening with the same blend of romance and practicality that he brought to his poetry.
After all, are we not all poets in our own right, composing living verses with every seed we sow and every bloom we nurture?