Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf Editions.
Poems.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Poetry.
ContentsPurchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at
http://collegebookshelf.net
About the author
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Oc-
tober 21, 1772-July 25, 1834)
was an English poet, critic, and
philosopher and, along with his
friend William Wordsworth, one
of the founders of the Romantic
Movement in England. He is
probably best known for his poem
The Rime of the Ancient Mari-
ner.
Coleridge was born in Ottery St. Mary, the son of a vicar. After the
death of his father, he was sent to Christ's Hospital, a boarding school
in London. In later life, Coleridge idealised his father as a pious inno-
cent, but his relationship with his mother was a difficult one. His child-
hood was characterised by attention-seeking, which has been linked
with his dependent personality as an adult, and he was rarely allowed
to return home during his schooldays. From 1791 until 1794 he at-
tended Jesus College at the University of Cambridge, except for a
short period when he enlisted in the royal dragoons. At the university
he met with political and theological ideas then considered radical. He
left Cambridge without a degree and joined the poet Robert Southey
in a plan, soon abandoned, to found a utopian communist-like society,
called pantisocracy, in the wilderness of Pennsylvania. In 1795 the two
friends married Sarah and Elizabeth Fricker (who were sisters), but
Coleridge's marriage proved unhappy. Southey departed for Portugal,
but Coleridge remained in England. In 1796 he published Poems on
Various Subjects.
In 1795 Coleridge met poet William Wordsworth and his sister
Dorothy. The two men of letters published a joint volume of poetry,
Lyrical Ballads (1798), which proved to be a manifesto for Romantic
poetry. The first version of Coleridge's great poem The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner appeared in this volume.
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