SOURCE: "Chivalry or Contest? Coleridge, Wordsworth, and 'The Goddess Nature'," in Coleridge and the Concept of Nature, The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1985, pp. 33-50.

In the following excerpt, Modiano traces the gradual process of alienation that occurred between Wordsworth and Coleridge, focusing on the role of the poets' attitudes regarding nature in the disintegration of their literary and personal relationship.

It is well known that Coleridge's opinion of himself depended excessively on how others viewed him and that he continuously regarded himself through the eyes of powerful men on whom he bestowed more affection than he would or could hope to get in return. He was given to idolizing his friends and easily disappointed when he sensed the slightest breach of loyalty. He was also easily persuaded of his own worthlessness by comparison with the creative stamina and successful lives he attributed to his friends, while at the same...