"Coleridge was Wordsworth's creator," I.A. Richards once said--a view that has long dominated our understanding of the two writers. In this book, Nicola Trott reconsiders their epochal partnership, finding in Wordsworth a poet who, while crucially influenced by Coleridge's ideas, nevertheless fought to keep alive his pre-Coleridgean identity. A series of contextualized readings locates Wordsworth's powerful individuality within the ideological conflicts of the day, and casts fresh light on Coleridge's protracted and ambivalent response to his friend's recalcitrant genius.