Summary:

A collection of poems including: The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere; The Foster-Mother's Tale; Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree which stands near the Lake of Esthwaite; The Nightingale, a Conversational Poem; The Female Vagrant; Goody Blake and Harry Gill; Lines written at a small distance from my House, and sent by my little Boy to the Person to whom they are addressed; Simon Lee, the old Huntsman; Anecdote for Fathers; We are seven; Lines written in early spring; The Thorn; The last of the Flock; The Dungeon; The Mad Mother; The Idiot Boy; Lines written near Richmond, upon the Thames, at Evening; Expostulation and Reply; The Tables turned; an Evening Scene, on the same subject; Old Man travelling; The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman; The Convict; and, Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey.
Most of the poems were written by Wordsworth, with Coleridge contributing only four poems to the collection, including one of his most famous works, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In the 'Advertisement' included in the 1798 edition, Wordsworth explained his poetical concept: 'The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure.'