Samuel T. Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772 in Ottery St. Mary, Devinshire. Coleridge was the youngest of ten children. His father John Coleridge died 9 years. One year later Coleridge was sent to school at Christ's Hospital, in London. In 1791 he entered Cambridge University, but never completed work for his university degree. In December 1793, Coleridge fled the university and enlisted in the Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment in the British Army, under the name Silas. Saved By his brothers, her returned to Cambridge and completed his studies. At Cambridge Coleridge met Robert Southey. Coleridge moved with him to Bristol to establish a community, but the plan was not successful. In 1795 he married the sister of Southey's fiancee Sara Fricker, whom he did not really love. Coleridge left the university to support his wife and in time his kids.

In 1797 he began the publication of a short-lived liberal political periodical The Watchman. Soon after he formed with his closest relationship the poet William Wordsworth. Together, they published Lyrical Ballads, opening with Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and ended with Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'.At the end of 1799 Coleridge fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, the sister of Wordsworth's future wife, to whom he devoted his work dejection: an ode. During these years Coleridge also began to compile his notebooks, daily meditations of his life. Suffering from neuralgic and rheumatic pain Coleridge became addicted to opium, a drug he originally took to relieve pain. In July 1800, Coleridge and his family moved to Keswick in the Lake District of England to be close to Wordsworth at Grasmere.

In 1807 Coleridge and his wife finally divorced leaving Samuel with his two remaining sons Hartley and Derwent. In 1804 he sailed to Malta in search of better health. Supplied with an ounce of opium and nine ounces of laudanum, he wrote in his journal: "O dear God! Give me strength of soul to make one thorough Trial