Full name: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Birth Date: October 21, 1772
Birth Place: Devon, England
Occupation: Poet, critic, philosopher
Literary movement: Romanticism
Spouse: Sarah Fricker
Religion: N/A
Zodiac sign: N/A
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic, and biography writer. Famous writer William Wordsworth and his friend, the two friends founded the literary movement in England. He is very much praised around the world for his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which was published in 1798. Coleridge came to a timeline around the world for his great literary work, ‘Lyrical Ballads’ when it was published his fame extended and gained poetical acclamation.
Early Life:
Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 in the country town of Ottery St Mary, Devon, England. Samuel’s father, the Reverend John Coleridge, was a well-respected vicar of the parish and headmaster of Henry VIII’s Free Grammar School at Ottery. He was highly influenced in life by his father. He was very much interested in literary work from early childhood and started writing in his school life.
Career:
Coleridge’s tendency toward Journalism was also obvious. In 1796, he started a newspaper, ‘The Watchman’ which lasted for only ten numbers. 1795 is a remarkable year in the life of Coleridge. He came in close acquaintance with Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy this year. Both poets were remarkably influenced by each other.
They decided to come out of the decorated drawing room of neo-classical poetry. They wanted to liberate poetry from the convent of the pleasure-seeking butterfly, Hyde Park, Hampton Court, and other fashionable places. Their target was to free English poetry from inane phraseology and bombastic diction.
In 1798, both the poets published ‘Lyrical Ballads’ containing twenty-three poems-nineteen by Wordsworth and four by Coleridge. Although these poems were not enthusiastically accepted by the readers, gradually they introduced a new era in English poetry, the Romantic Movement.