Samuel taylor coleridge full biography

When he returned to England inhe settled with family and friends at Keswick. Over the next two decades Coleridge lectured on literature and philosophy, wrote about religious and political theory, spent two years on the island of Malta as a secretary to the governor in an effort to overcome his poor health and his opium addiction, and lived off of financial donations and grants.

Still addicted to opium, he moved in with the physician James Gillman in Inhe published Biographia Literaria, which contained his finest literary criticism. He continued to publish poetry and prose, notably Sibylline LeavesAids to Reflectionand Church and State He died in London on July 25, The idea did not completely collapse until Southey abandoned the plans in August in order to become a lawyer.

Following the birth of their fourth child, he eventually separated from her. A third sister, Mary, had already married a third poet Robert Lovell, both of whom later became partners in Pantisocracy. However, during this time, Coleridge met William Wordsworth. Inhe also privately printed Sonnets from Various Authors, including sonnets by Lamb, Lloyd, Southey and himself as well as older poets such as Bowles.

In JanuaryColeridge began travelling to find subscribers for a proposed political magazine called The Watchman. It was to be printed every eight days to avoid a weekly newspaper tax, and the first issue of the short-lived journal was published in March However, it had ceased publication by May of that year when Coleridge ran out of money. Fortunately, he was able to make money on the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, 16 Apriland by giving lectures about Roman history.

He lived here between the years andin what is now known as Coleridge Cottage. It was during these years that Coleridge produced the most work and are thought to be the most fruitful years of his life. Wordsworth joined Coleridge in Somerset, along with visits from Poole, Lamb, and other associates. In the spring ofColeridge temporarily took over for Rev.

Toulmin grieved over the drowning death of his daughter Jane. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner particularly stood out because it was the longest work, and drew the most praise.

Samuel taylor coleridge full biography: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a

This was to free him of his ministerial career and allowed to him to take charge of his life again. On 16 SeptemberColeridge and the Wordsworths both moved to Germany, although Coleridge soon went his own way and spent much of his time in university towns. During this period, he became interested in German philosophy, especially the transcendental idealism and critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and in the literary criticism of the 18th-century dramatist Gotthold Lessing.

Coleridge studied German and, after his return to England intranslated the dramatic trilogy Wallenstein by the German Classical poet Friedrich Schiller into English. His dependency on laudanum grew, he had frequent nightmares that would wake the children and he was a fussy eater. At this time, he was also experiencing marital issues. All of these problems led to the composition of Dejection: An Ode and an intensification of his philosophical studies.

Not long after this, Coleridge experienced a religious conversion: his reading of the seventeenth-century Anglican divine, Robert Leighton, led him to abandon the Unitarianism he had practiced and to embrace instead the Church of England and its orthodoxies. Beginning inColeridge sought to consolidate his literary reputation. Although he continued to involve himself in essentially minor original projects, such as his play Zapolya which appeared in Coleridge's major endeavor at this time was to restore his reputation as a significant poet of the age.

Meanwhile, the biographical preface he had contemplated for the latter volume so grew under his retrospective thinking that it eventuated in a lengthy, two-volume project, his most influential work in prose, that he called Biographia Literaria, which was published in tandem with Sybilline Leaves.

Samuel taylor coleridge full biography: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October

This work aspires to be a combination of literary criticism, autobiography, and philosophical speculation, tracing Coleridge's life through childhood, through his fascination and later disillusionment with the associationist philosophy of David Hartleyand his collaboration with Wordsworth. Among its most famous parts are those passages in which he describes his notion of the imagination and critiques Wordsworth's poetry with analytical acuity.

From this point on, however, Coleridge's productions fell off. Another work of criticism, Aids to Reflection, appeared in Given that Coleridge tended to be highly disorganised and had no head for business, the publication was probably doomed from the start. Coleridge financed the journal by selling over five hundred subscriptions, over two dozen of which were sold to members of Parliament, but in latepublication was crippled by a financial crisis and Coleridge was obliged to approach "Conversation Sharp"[35] Tom Poole and one or two other wealthy friends for an emergency loan to continue.

The Friend was an eclectic publication that drew upon every corner of Coleridge's remarkably diverse knowledge of law, philosophy, morals, politics, history, and literary criticism. Although it was often turgid, rambling, and inaccessible to most readers, it ran for 25 issues and was republished in book form a number of times. Years after its initial publication, a revised and expanded edition of The Friend, with added philosophical content including his 'Essays on the Principles of Method', became a highly influential work and its effect was felt on writers and philosophers from John Stuart Mill to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

London: final years and death [ edit ] Blue plaque, 7 Addison Bridge Place, West KensingtonLondon From toColeridge gave a series of lectures in London and Bristol — those on Shakespeare renewed interest in the playwright as a model for contemporary writers.

Samuel taylor coleridge full biography: Samuel Taylor Coleridge was

Much of Coleridge's reputation as a literary critic is founded on the lectures that he undertook in the winter of —11, which were sponsored by the Philosophical Institution and given at Scot's Corporation Hall off Fetter Lane, Fleet Street. As a result of these factors, Coleridge often failed to prepare anything but the loosest set of notes for his lectures and regularly entered into extremely long digressions which his audiences found difficult to follow.

However, it was the lecture on Hamlet given on 2 January that was considered the best and has influenced Hamlet studies ever since. Before Coleridge, Hamlet was often denigrated and belittled by critics from Voltaire to Dr. Coleridge rescued the play's reputation, and his thoughts on it are often still published as supplements to the text.

Inhe allowed Robert Southey to make use of extracts from his vast number of private notebooks in their collaboration Omniana; Or, Horae Otiosiores. Coleridge was regarded by many as the greatest living writer on the demonic and he accepted the commission, only to abandon work on it after six weeks.