Gregory Sturges
A Short Biography on the Life of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
The
poet, critic, and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on October 21,
1772. Following the death of his father in 1782, he was sent to Christ
Hospital, a London charity school, where he met Charles Lamb. In 1792,
Coleridge entered Jesus College, Cambridge, but left to enlist in the Royal
Dragoons in 1793. Following his discharge from the Royal Dragoons, Coleridge
met Robert Southey. In 1795, through Robert Southey, Coleridge was introduced
to Sara Fricker, the woman whom he would later marry. Within the same year,
Coleridge would meet William
Wordsworth. The two formed a close friendships
and, in collaborative effort produced, “Lyrical Ballads”. Lyrical Ballads was
Coleridge’s most comprehensive poetic achievement. It included his most notable
poetic works, “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. However,
conflict surrounding authorship over “Lyrical Ballads” caused rift between the
two. Coleridge’s most notable friends: Southey, Thomas de Quincy, and Dorothy
and William Wordsworth all describe Coleridge as temperamental and
inconsistent, perhaps the effect of his drug addition to laudanum. Coleridge use
of laudanum was the result of depression and a chronic rheumatic pains that
plagued him throughout most of his adult life.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Peter Vandyke, 1795 Source: National Portrait Gallery, London |
Coleridge’s
philosophy and literary career were undoubtedly influenced by the works of
Shakespeare and Milton. While traveling in Germany, Coleridge was captivated by
the German transcendentalist movement involving Immanuel Kant and Jakob Boehme,
and also the literary critic Gotthold Lessing. Coleridge was also religious,
and wrote and produced works that demonstrated his belief in God and Judeo
Christian laws, using them as a template to support his claims made against the
British monarchy. Coleridge was much more of a philosopher and student of life
than he was a poet. He was reverend by his contemporaries for his shrewd
intelligence. His ideas and philosophies would influence many young Romantic and
Gothic writers. Keats, Shelly, Byron are of the many writers who revered
Coleridge’s philosophies, applying to their poetry the principles of the Primary
and Secondary Imaginations.
With
his health declining, Coleridge, sought relief abroad. He was a prolific
traveler, but assumed it would alleviate his worsening condition. He also
traveled to escape his unwanted marriage from Mrs. Coleridge. In the year 1806
the couple abstained from their marital commitment. Financially destitute,
Coleridge spent the remainder of his life with James Gillman, a physician. From
1816 until his death, Coleridge was known as the sage of Highgate. He died on
July 25, 1834. Coleridge, although his literary achievements suffered from his
obsessive drug use and difficult personality, Coleridge managed to help found
an entire literary genre. He redefined how poets and authors interpret reality.
Coleridge, a figure of the past, still lives on through his literature.
Literary
Book Review
In Modern Critical Interpretation: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner, Harold Bloom provides an eclectic assembly of
perspectives on one of Coleridge’s most notable works of poetry. The selections
Bloom chooses represent what he describes as the best criticisms devoted to
Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner in the past quarter century. In the section entitled Editor’s Notes, Bloom establishes the
range of criticisms and there relation to other critics listed, and describes
the contrasting and refuting elements within their arguments. The principle
interest of the book appears to be didactic, as the contrasting views on
Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner provides different methodologies and interpretations with which to
address a work of literature. He notes that his introduction, “argues that the Rime is a parable of the Primary
Imagination, rather than an allegory or ironic narrative of the Secondary Imagination,”
which he claims, “is directed implicitly against” Robert Pen Warrens Christian
symbolic interpretation. Bloom highlights the varying ranges of the
differences, which can be expanded to include psychoanalytic, structural, and
historical influences that are presented as themes suggested to have been
instrumental when Coleridge’s conception of the poem. Structurally, Bloom is
refuting them all on some level, but maintains the communal academic
relationship that, when followed successively, reveals the social network
supporting academic scholarship.
Bloom has provided his
readers with a scholarly view of Coleridge, a shared view in which the
differing themes presented across different perspectives collectively provide
even greater insights into the professional and personal life of Coleridge. Thus,
Bloom’s book is biographical in nature, but only when all of the individual
works are viewed as a collective whole. Initially, I assumed that the selection
process was random, perhaps even biased to a default, yet I could not deny the
feeling of being informed of the major conventions inherent to Coleridge’s
works. One learns not only of the differences governing the thought processes
of scholars, but how effective academic writers treat their subject matter. The
fact that he places an emphasis on delivering the best criticisms informs the
reader that he means to provide a template that contrasts against ineffective
academic scholarship. Because Bloom
presents an assortment of different scholarly opinions with very little commentary
as to their relationship to each other, saving the editor’s notes, this review
has had to focus on the selection process. This book is guideline, but it also
demonstrates a process, an evolution of thought that is dependent on social
interaction. In Blooms editorial notes, he highlights the process, summarizing
the differing points of views that converge within academic scholarship on
Coleridge, which reinforcing creativity and academic exploration.
My only complaint with
this book is that Bloom does not conclude or tie the different elements
together. He asserts and alludes to this application of the text, yet he does
little in the end to follow up this expectations. The redder is forced to
assume a greater deal on their own, which could lead to misinformed
interpretations.
Works
Cited
Journals
Beer, John. "The
Paradoxes of Nature in Wordsworth and Coleridge." Wordsworth Circle.
Winter (2009): 4-9. Print
Chandler, David. "Coleridge: An Early
Claim That the 'Law of Association' Came from
Aristotle." Notes and Queries (1994):
338-39.
Foakes, R.A. "Coleridge, Violence and
'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'" Romanticism: The
Journal of Romantic Culture and Criticism 7 (2001): 41-57.
Jung, Sandro. "The Body of Guilt in
Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Trivium 37
(2007): 223-36.
Leadbetter,
Gregory. "The Comic Imagination in Lamb and Coleridge." Charles
Lamb
Bulletin 159.Spring (2014): 11-19.
Morton, Timothy. "Taking Stands on the
Later Coleridge." English Language Notes 34.June
(1997): 72-80.
Murray,
Chris. "Review Essay: 'Give It Up in Despair': Coleridge and Goethe's
Faust."Romanticism: The Journal of
Romantic Culture and Criticism 15 (2009): 1-15.
Myers, Victoria. "Coleridge's The Friend:
An Experiment in Rhetorical Theory." Journal of
English and Germanic Philology 86 (1987): 9-32.
Sha,
Richard C. "Romantic Physiology and the Work of Romantic Imagination:
Hypothesis and
Speculation in Science and
Coleridge." European Romantic Review 4.August (2013):
403-19.
Thomas,
Sophie. "Aids to Friendship: Coleridge and the Inscription of the Friend." European
Romantic Review 4.December (2003): 431-40.
Woudenberg, Maximiliaan
Van. "Coleridge and Kurrentschrift." Notes and Queries 259.March
(2014): 50-54.
Books
Barth, J. Robert. Romanticism
and Transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious
Imagination. Columbia: U
of Missouri P, 2003. Print.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern
Critical Interpretations The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. New
York: Chelsea House, 1986. Print
Coburn, Kathleen. In
Pursuit of Coleridge. London: Bodley Head, 1978. Print.
Gregory, Alan P.R. Coleridge
and the Conservative Imagination. Macon: Mercer UP, 2002.
Print.
Knaap, Steven. Personification
and the Sublime: Milton to Coleridge. Cambridge: Harvard UP,
1985. Print.
Matlak, Richard E. The
Poetry of Relationship: The Wordsworths and Coleridge, 1797-1800.
New York: St. Martin's, 1997. Print.
Modiano, Raimonda. Coleridge
and the Concept of Nature. Tallahassee: Florida State UP, 1985.
Print.
Morrow, John. Coleridge's
Political Thought: Property, Morality and the Limits of Traditional
Discourse. New York:
St. Martin's, 1990. Print.
Seamus, Perry. S.
T. Coleridge: Interviews and Recollections. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
Print.
Timothy, Corrigan. Coleridge,
Language and Criticism. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1982. Print.
Websites
The European
Graduate School. European
Graduate School EDGS, 1997. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
The Literature
Network. Jalic Inc., 2000. Web.
29 Oct. 2014.
"Samuel Taylor
Coleridge." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web.
30 Oct. 2014.
Schwarts, Christian. Poets.org.
Academy of American Poets. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.