Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief. He was a major influence, via Emerson, on American transcendentalism.

Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition as yet unidentified during his lifetime. Coleridge suffered from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction.

Read more about Samuel Taylor Coleridge:  Early Life, Poetry

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    I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order;Mpoetry = the best words in the best order.
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
    —Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    Then the LORD called, -Samuel! Samuel! and he said, -Here I am!
    Bible: Hebrew, 1 Samuel 3:4.

    He holds him with his glittering eye—
    The Wedding Guest stood still,
    And listens like a three years’ child:
    The Mariner hath his will.
    —Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
    Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
    —Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)