is a critical and biographical study centred on the poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge written for and inspired by Asra, the anagram he used for the woman he loved, Sara Hutchinson. In his late twenties and unhappily married, Coleridge met Sara Hutchinson – the younger sister of Mary Hutchinson, who later married William Wordsworth – in October 1799. It was, true to the cliché, love at first sight, though Coleridge’s love for Sara may have outweighed her love for him, or at least he was more willing to show it. In exploring the love between Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson, George Whalley reveals something of the complexity of the relationships among the men and women in the circle surrounding Wordsworth and Coleridge, two of the most…
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Citation: DiSanto, Michael. "Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson and the Asra Poems". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 December 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33208, accessed 27 November 2024.]