The Life and Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Comprehensive Biography

Discover the life and literary legacy of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the visionary poet and philosopher behind The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel. Explore his journey from childhood to the Lake Poets, his struggles, and his lasting influence on English literature.

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Biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on October 21, 1772, in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, England. Some biographers, however, cite 1773 as his birth year. He passed away on July 25, 1834, and was laid to rest in the vault of Highgate Church on August 2.

Coleridge’s father, a clergyman, was distinguished for his scholarship, simplicity of character, and dedication to his students at the grammar school where he taught before fully committing to the ministry. His mother, Anne Bowden, was deeply invested in the education and upbringing of her children.

After his father’s death, young Coleridge was enrolled at Christ’s Hospital, where he studied for eight years. During this time, he exhibited a vivid imagination and an extraordinary memory, retaining everything he read. His intellectual prowess was evident when a teacher noted that he read Virgil for amusement. At the age of sixteen, he had already written verses showcasing significant poetic talent.

In February 1791, Coleridge entered Jesus College, Cambridge. University life, however, did not completely satisfy him, and struggling with financial difficulties, he enlisted in the 15th Light Dragoons under the name “Comberback.” His military career was brief; his scholarly inclinations were soon discovered by an officer who ensured his discharge. He returned to Cambridge but left without obtaining a degree in 1794.

That same year, Coleridge visited Oxford, where he met Robert Southey, forming a lifelong friendship. Together, they devised a utopian plan to establish a communal society along the Susquehanna River in America, emphasizing selflessness and virtue. However, due to financial constraints, the plan was abandoned in 1795. That year, Coleridge married Sarah Fricker and settled in Clevedon on the Bristol Channel. Shortly thereafter, Southey married Sarah’s sister and left for Portugal.

To support himself, Coleridge began lecturing on politics and religion, though public response was lukewarm. He later published his lectures in book form. In the summer of 1796, he met William Wordsworth and his sister, leading to another lifelong bond. Wordsworth described Coleridge as an extraordinary man whose conversational brilliance was unparalleled. The trio, later joined by Southey, became known as the “Lake Poets,” a term initially used pejoratively by critics but later embraced for their literary contributions.

Coleridge launched a periodical, “The Watchman,” though it lasted only two months. In 1796, he published “Juvenile Poems,” receiving thirty guineas and gaining widespread recognition. Two years later, the Wedgwood brothers granted him an annuity, allowing him to travel to Germany with Wordsworth and his sister. While there, Coleridge attended lectures in Göttingen and became fluent in German.

Upon returning to England, he contributed to the “Morning Post” and translated plays by Friedrich Schiller. In 1804, he traveled to Malta as the secretary to Sir Alexander Ball. After returning, he wrote “Remorse,” a powerful tragedy in blank verse that drew comparisons to Shakespeare’s works and solidified his reputation.

In 1801, Coleridge moved to the Lake District, staying with Southey. However, this period marked the onset of his struggles with opium addiction, which hindered his productivity for the next fifteen years. Despite his personal challenges, he continued to captivate London’s intellectual circles with his conversation. Works such as “Ode to Dejection” and “Youth and Age” reflect his inner turmoil.

Coleridge later published “The Friend” (1809), a philosophical periodical, and delivered lectures on Shakespeare. His play “Remorse” (1813) achieved notable success. In 1816, he published “Christabel,” a mystical poem written years earlier, along with “Lay Sermons” and “Biographia Literaria,” an insightful blend of autobiography and literary criticism.

In his later years, Coleridge found refuge in the home of James Gillman at Highgate, where he received care and support. With time, he overcame his opium dependency, though the struggle left lasting effects. At Highgate, he completed “Aids to Reflection” (1825), his most mature prose work, and “On the Constitution of Church and State” (1830), his final publication.

Coleridge died in 1834, leaving behind a legacy of poetic and philosophical brilliance. His “Literary Remains” were published posthumously. While his prose works secured his reputation as a profound thinker, poems such as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Christabel” remain among the finest in English literature. Though he lacked sustained focus, his conversational genius and poetic mastery ensured his enduring place in literary history.ploration of the world and the human condition, inviting readers to embark on a journey of reflection and discovery.

Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Kubla Khan
Frost At Midnight
Work Without Hope
Epigram
Christabel
What Is Life?
Life
This Lime-Tree Bower, My Prison
Metrical Feet
Desire
Reflections On Having Left A Place Of Retirement
Kubla Khan
To Nature
The Suicide’s Argument
Despair
The Eolian Harp
To A Young Ass
The Pains Of Sleep
The Good, Great Man
Fears In Solitude
About The Nightingale
Dejection: An Ode
Love
The Faded Flower
Limbo
Frost At Midnight
The Aeolian Harp
Youth And Age
The Presence Of Love
Fragment
Human Life
Something Childish, But Very Natural
Epitaph
To The River Otter
The Nightingale
The Knight’s Tomb
The Netherlands (fragment)
Time, Real And Imaginary
Phantom
The Lime-tree Bower my Prison [Addressed to Charles Lamb, o
Psyche
A Soliloquy Of The Full Moon, She Being In A Mad Passion
Reason
To William Wordsworth
Duty Surviving Self-Love
Love’s Apparition and Evanishment: An Allegoric Romance
To the Nightingale
The Dungeon
To The Rev. George Coleridge
France: An Ode
Sonnet
Recollections Of Love
Cologne
A Tombless Epitaph
Constancy To An Ideal Object
On Donne’s Poetry
Zapolya
From ‘Religious Musings’
Come, come thou bleak December wind (fragment)
Hexameters
The Improvisatore
The Garden Of Boccaccio
The Moon, how definite its orb! (fragment)
The Three Sorts of Friends (fragment)
On A Ruined house In A Romantic Country
Aplolgia Pro Vita Sua
Song
The Exchange
To A Primrose
To Asra
Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O’Kellyn?
I know ’tis but a Dream, yet feel more anguish (fragment)
When Hope but made Tranquillity be felt (fragment)
Whom should I choose for my Judge? (fragment)
Lines
The Blossing Of The Solitary Date-Tree
As some vast Tropic tree, itself a wood (fragment)
Hymn before Sun-rise, in the Vale of Chamouni
Brockley Coomb
Inscription For A Fountain On A Heath
Glycine’s Song

Quotes by Samuel Taylor Coleridge [Link]

“A man may devote himself to death and destruction to save a nation; but no nation will devote itself to death and destruction to save mankind.”

“A man’s as old as he’s feeling. A woman as old as she looks.”

“A poet ought not to pick nature’s pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.”