Brainchild of the German scholar William Taylor, who suggested the idea of a literary almanac modelled on those edited by Schiller and Burger, The Annual Anthology contains poems by Southey (under a variety of pseudonyms), Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Charles Lloyd, Joseph and A.S.Cottle, Davy, Beddoes, Opie and Robinson. Southey was a versatile editor, but after two issues he pulled out and publication ceased. Coleridge's 'This lime tree bower my prison' makes its first appearance here, and Southey's 'Battle of Blenheim'. Really the work of the Bristol literary circle, the two volumes are valuable evidence of the state of English poetry as the eighteenth century came to an end.