Samuel Coleridge's Life

           Samuel T. Coleridge was born in 1772 in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire. He was the youngest out of 10 kids and his parents, John Coleridge and Ann Bowdon, loved him very much. Coleridge liked his childhood and started reading books as early as six years old. Coleridge went off to Christ’s Hospital School, which was in London, after his dad died. After being at school for awhile he left in 1793 to join the 15^th Light Dragoons because he had a large amount of debt that needed to get paid off and he was leaving behind a bad relationship. When Coleridge joined the 15^th Light Dragoons he enlisted under a different name, Silias Tomkin Comberbache. But soon after he enlisted he found that he did not fit in and people started saying that he was insane.

            In 1795 he married Sara Fricker even though he didn’t love her. His collection of Poems on Various Subjects was published in 1796 and in 1797 Poems was published. Also in 1797 he met William Wordsworth and Wordsworth’s wife, Dorothy, and became very good friends with them. After becoming friends with Wordsworth they both wrote the Lyrical Ballads that started with “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. It is said that this ballad was based on Captain James Cook’s voyage from 1772 to 1775. Coleridge was given 150 pounds from Josiah and Thomas Wedgewood which started his career. From 1798 to 1799 Wordsworth, Dorothy, and Coleridge went to Germany where Coleridge studied at Gottingen University. In 1799 Coleridge met Sara Hutchinson and fell in love with her.

            Coleridge had become addicted to opium because that would take away his neuralgic and rheumatic pains. In 1804 he took a trip to Malta to find a better way to deal with his problems instead of being on opium. He stayed in Malta for awhile and then returned to England. Sara Hutchinson and Coleridge wrote and edited the magazine The Friend in 1809 to 1810. In 1808-1818 he gave a few lectures in London. Coleridge’s friendship he had with Wordsworth became very unsteady in 1810; unfortunately they never completely rekindled their once great friendship. Not that long after Wordsworth and Coleridge’s friendship dwindled down to nothing Coleridge was thinking of suicide. In 1816 Christabel and Kubla Khan were published. Coleridge died on July 25, 1834 in Highgate, which is near London.