Coleridge

**Coleridge** One of the first generation of Romantic poets, Coleridge had a great influence on the formation of Romanticism as a literary period.


 * Coleridge's Life:**
 * Was born in Ottery St.Mary, Devonshire and was the youngest son of Vicar of Ottery St.Mary
 * After his fathers death he was sent away to Christ's Hospital School in London
 * Studied at Jesus College
 * Met, radical and future poet Laureale Robert Southey at Cambridge who shared his political and social idealism
 * 1795; he married the sister of Southey's fiancée, Sarah Fricker (who he was never happy with)
 * settled in Nether Stowey in 1797, and shortly after this William Wordsworth   and his sister Dorothy moved into a house nearby.
 * Started a close friendship with Dorothy and William Wordsworth
 * Brothers Josiah and Thomas granted him 150 pounds allowing Coleridge to pursue a career in literature
 * In 1810 Coleridge and Wordsworth's friendship came into crisis and there friendship was never the same from then onwards
 * Had an obsession with Sarah Hutchinson (Wordsworth's sister in law)
 * Later on his life he became addicted to opium
 * He was interested in German Philosophy (e.g. Kant)
 * Often Wordsworth critiqued Coleridge's work and Coleridge would critique Wordsworth's
 * While in an unhappy marriage and with an addiction to opium, he produced “Dejection: An Ode” (1802), in which he laments the loss of his power to produce poetry


 * Coleridge's Poetry:**
 * Poems set a new style using everyday language and introducing a fresh way of looking at nature
 * Idealisation of nature and lake district
 * Appeals to the senses with vivid descriptions
 * Imagination was the key to his poetry they were Coleridge's theories of the creative imagination
 * Broke away from the strict rules of verse
 * Embraced simple language and direct speech
 * Nature was the inspiration for his poems


 * Types of poems:**
 * Conversational poems ( which have an informal tone and use dialogue)
 * Mystery poems
 * Supernatural poems
 * Gothic poems


 * How does Coleridge link to the Romantic movement?**
 * Lyrical Ballads (1798)containing the famous “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Frost at Midnight" written with William Wordsworth were said to have started the English Romantic Movement.
 * Coleridge uses the sublime to describe nature and pantheism within his poems
 * Coleridge promotes the Romantic view that not everything can be proved scientifically

The Romantic Period Pantheism