Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge poet, critic and philosopher was born in 1772 at Ottery St. Mary in Devon. His friendship with William Wordsworth produced one of the most fruitful creative partnerships in English literature. Their joint work, Lyrical Ballads, opened with one of Coleridge’s most celebrated poems, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. The metaphor of an albatross around one’s neck and the phrase ‘water water everywhere’ are amongst the most famous lines in English poetry.
Although married with a family, in 1799 Coleridge fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, the sister of Wordsworth’s wife. This unfulfilled relationship gave him little happiness and it was to her that he addressed his work ‘Dejection: An Ode.’ Coleridge suffered greatly from rheumatic pains and as a result became addicted to opium. It is believed his enigmatic poem, ‘Kubla Khan’, was drug induced and inspired by a dream vision. Over the years Coleridge’s relationship with Wordsworth became strained. The two poets were reconciled but the original harmony was never fully restored.
In his later years he produced much distinguished philosophical and critical writing including Biographia Literaria in 1817. Coleridge died in Highgate, London on July 25 1834. |
