Coleridge! Coleridge! Coleridge!

The man who wrote this amazing poem, his name is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I figured after reading all this fantastic information about “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” you might want to know a little bit about the man who wrote it. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the leaders in the British Romantic movement. He was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England. His father was an exceptional grammar school teacher, he was married twice and had fourteen children. Samuel was the youngest of all fourteen children and attended his fathers school and became an awesome reader! His father died in 1781 and Coleridge decided to attend Christ's Hospital School in London, where he makes friends with a classmate named Tom Evans, who introduced Coleridge to his family. Coleridge fell in love with Tom's older sister Mary. Coleridge's father’s dream for his son was to be to be a clergyman, so when Coleridge started Jesus College, University of Cambridge in 1791, he focused on a possible future with the Church of England. However, Coleridge's religious views, began to change over the course of his first year at Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Coleridge also accumulated a large debt, and financial problems continued to stay with him throughout his life.  He constantly depended on the support of others. On his way to Wales in June 1794, Coleridge met a student named Robert Southey. They began an instant friendship, the men shared their philosophical ideas. Influenced by Plato's Republic, they constructed a vision of pantisocracy, which means equal government by all, this involved emigrating to the New World with ten other families to set up a little village on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Coleridge and Southey envisioned the men sharing the workload, great philosophical discussions, and freedom of religious and political beliefs. After visiting Wales, Coleridge went back to England to learn that Southey had become engaged to a woman named Edith Fricker. Marriage was a very important part of the plan to move to the New World, so even though Coleridge was still in love Mary Evans, he decided to marry Sarah Fricker, Edith’s sister, because Mary was already engaged to a different man.  Coleridge and Sarah’s wedding was in 1795, Coleridge's marriage was terrible and unhappy, they spent much time apart.  During that period, Coleridge and Southey collaborated to write a play. While they were still planning pantisocracy, Southey abandoned the project to pursue a job as a lawyer. Coleridge spent the next few years beginning his career as a writer. He never returned to Cambridge. In 1795 Coleridge met, and became friends with William Wordsworth who introduced Coleridge to the idea of Romanticism. Later Blake created his very, very famous poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which as you know what this whole blog is about!:) I need to give some credit to the people at Poets.org, because considering the fact the I don’t know all of this information off the top of my head, I needed a little bit of help from them, so thank you! 


By: Jordan Currier