The Daily Poem • 2 April 2025

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Dungeon"

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While you can count on one hand the poems Coleridge contributed to Lyrical Ballads, they are some of the most memorable in the collection. Today’s poem uses an abstract description to conjure a very concrete social evil–the state of British prisons at the end of the long 18th century. Happy reading.

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