McFarland established his reputation with ''Coleridge and Pantheist Tradition'' (1969), where he argued that Coleridge was struggling to reconcile two types of philosophy; the philosophy of the 'it is' and the philosophy of the 'I am'.
According to reports in the New York Times, McFarland resigned his professorship in 1989 following an accusation of sexual assault on a male student. Prior to his resignation he had been placed on a one-year suspension, but the reports suggest this led to the resignations of the chairman of the department Emory Elliott, along with Margaret Doody, Sandra Gilbert and Valerie Smith because they thought McFarland was treated too leniently.
Despite this scandal, a Festschrift entitled ''The Coleridge Connection: Essays for Thomas McFarland'' (Palgrave), was released in 1990 in his honour, which "explores what McFarland calls the symbiotic nature of Coleridge’s friendship and collaborations".
