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Introduction

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an influential English poet, critic, and philosopher born in 1772 in Devonshire. He helped launch the English Romantic movement through his collaboration with William Wordsworth on Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Coleridge studied at Cambridge and became close friends with Wordsworth, influencing each other's poetic styles. He traveled to Germany where he studied philosophy and became interested in the works of Kant. Throughout his life, Coleridge struggled with opium addiction and lived his later years in the household of a doctor in Highgate near London, where he focused on theological and political writings and died in 1834.

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54 views1 page

Introduction

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an influential English poet, critic, and philosopher born in 1772 in Devonshire. He helped launch the English Romantic movement through his collaboration with William Wordsworth on Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Coleridge studied at Cambridge and became close friends with Wordsworth, influencing each other's poetic styles. He traveled to Germany where he studied philosophy and became interested in the works of Kant. Throughout his life, Coleridge struggled with opium addiction and lived his later years in the household of a doctor in Highgate near London, where he focused on theological and political writings and died in 1834.

Uploaded by

Samreen Azim
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Introduction:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English lyrical poet, critic, and philosopher, whose Lyrical
Ballads,(1798) written with William Wordsworth, started the English Romantic movement. Samuel
Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St Mary, Devonshire, as the youngest son of the vicar of Ottery St
Mary. After his father's death Coleridge was sent away to Christ's Hospital School in London. He also
studied at Jesus College. In Cambridge Coleridge met the radical, future poet laureate Robert
Southey. Coleridge's collection Poems On Various Subjects was published in 1796, and in 1797
appeared Poems. In the same year he began the publication of a short-lived liberal political
periodical The Watchman.  He started a close friendship with Dorothy and William Wordsworth, one of
the most fruitful creative relationships in English literature. From it resulted Lyrical Ballads, which
opened with Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and ended with Wordsworth's "Tin tern Abbey".
These poems set a new style by using everyday language and fresh ways of looking at nature.
Coleridge visited Germany in 1798-99 with Dorothy and William, and became interested in the works
of Immanuel Kant. He studied philosophy at Gottingen University and mastered the German language.
At the end of 1799 Coleridge fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, the sister of Wordsworth's future wife,
to whom he devoted his work "Dejection: An Ode" (1802). During these years Coleridge also began to
compile his Notebooks, recording the daily meditations of his life. In 1809-10 he wrote and edited with
Sara Hutchinson the literary and political magazine The Friend. From 1808 to 1818 he gave several
lectures, chiefly in London, and was considered the greatest of Shakespearean critics. Suffering from
neuralgic and rheumatic pains, Coleridge had become addicted to opium. During the following years
he lived in London, on the verge of suicide. He found a permanent shelter in High gate in the
household of Dr. James Gillman, and enjoyed an almost legendary reputation among the younger
Romantics. During this time he rarely left the house. In 1816 the unfinished poems "Cristobel" and
"Kubla Khan" were published, and next year appeared "Sibylline Leaves". According to the poet,
"Kubla Khan" was inspired by a dream vision. His most important production during this period was
the Biographia Literaria (1817). After 1817 Coleridge devoted himself to theological and politico-
sociological works. Coleridge was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1824. He died in
High gate, near London on July 25, 1834.

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