Cultural Context

Year(s) Cultural Context Text/Ideas Notes On Readers Context

Immanuel Kant produced a series of important

philosophical works, which greatly involved pure
reason. This was relevant to Coleridge and other
Romantics, as it allows to poetry its intimations of
1760s what cannot be ‘understood’ by reason alone. The
poet’s self-originating vision trespasses beyond
the limits of what can be reasonably understood,
where we enter the realm of the pure, artistic
imagination
Politically charged atmosphere in Europe during Coleridge writes about politics in
the late eighteenth century due to the onset of several of his poems, including
several revolutions across the world (both ‘France: An Ode’, where
American (1765-91) and French (1789-99) In elements of the natural world,
poems such as ‘France: An Ode’, Coleridge ‘waves’, ‘forests’, ‘clouds’ and
Late 17th Cent. realises that liberty comes from his power to unite ‘sun’, are invoked to bear
with, and so repossess, the natural world. This has witness to the poet’s worship of
to do with the concept of One Life — the idea that liberty. This is a liberty which he
the power of life lies in interaction with the now believes he had
environment, and the potential of each part of the misplacedly lodged in political
environment to be unfolded. revolution.
Coleridge was introduced to Robert Southey on a
tour through Oxford. Southey seemed to inspire
Coleridge with his fantastical ideas, namely
emigrating to America and setting up an ideal
1794
society similar to Plato's Republic. Coleridge
quickly caught onto this idea, and began to preach
it when he returned to Cambridge under the name
‘Pantisocracy’
Southey began to have doubts about the
Pantisocracy scheme, and becoming a radical
utopian. This led to the scheme collapsing, and
The Eolian Harp reflects the
Coleridge deciding to settle down like his peers.
conflict between natural
1795 He married Sara Fricker in 1795. They moved into
response and higher
Clevedon, in a myrtle-and jasmine-covered
responsibility.
cottage overlooking the Bristol Channel - an idyllic
and highly natural setting described in Coleridge’s
poem 'The Eolian Harp'.
In 1796, following the birth of his first child and the
collapse of his magazine, Coleridge was on the
1796
verge of bankruptcy. He began to take laudanum
(opium dissolved in alcohol).

After receiving financial support, Coleridge moved

back to the rural south, settling in Somerset
1797 (Nether Stowey). Here, he was able to be
surrounded by nature, and regained some of his
health and happiness.
1797 Coleridge was introduced to Wordsworth. The two
seemed to share many Romantic ideas, and
discussed poetry at length on their first meeting.
Wordsworth then moved to Nether Stowey, where
the two collaborated extensively. The two wrote
the revolutionary Lyrical Ballads of 1798, which
helped to inaugurate the Romantic era in England.
During this period of just under
a year the majority of those
poems on which his poetic
reputation largely depends were
written: 'The Ancient Mariner',
'Frost at Midnight', 'The
Nightingale', part I of
‘Christabel', and probably 'Kubla
Khan' as well. Wordsworth, in

Cultural Context 1

Coleridge became unable to return to the
1799 domesticity of home-life, and began to travel with
Southey and Wordsworth more often
Coleridge met and fell in love with Sara
Hutchinson, the sister of Wordsworth’s wife Mary,
1799 during the autumn of 1799. For the next ten years,
Coleridge was tortured by his hopeless passion for
her
Coleridge moved to Keswick, and fell ill. His
declining physical health led to an increase in the
amount of Laudanum that he was taking. Attempts
to reduce his dosage led to increased paranoia
1800
and delusion, which put further strain on his
marriage. His desire for Sara Hutchinson
continued to develop, becoming the subject of
much of his writing during this period
1810-1816 Wordsworth and Coleridge had a falling out over
his increasing Laudanum usage. This sent
Coleridge into a deeper spiral, with several
unsuccessful attempts at quitting. Through sheer
force, he was able to complete some works —
most notably Biographia Literaria from June to
September of 1815
Cultural Context
the preface to its third edition,
said that Lyrical Ballads ‘turned
the established conventions of
poetry upside down’ —
introducing romantic notions
such as privileging natural
speech over poetic ornament,
simply stating themes instead of
conveying them with elaborate
symbolism, prioritising emotion
over abstract thought, and
placing natural beauty above
urban sophistication.
'This Lime Tree Bower’ details
Coleridge’s celebration of the
natural world and its pleasures.
In the end, the poet’s
imagination triumphs over his
separation: his bower reveals
pleasures of its own; Nature is
hospitable to human response.
Sensation proves adequate to
human need; Nature is a
providential resource against
isolation. This establishes the
difference between Neoclassical
and Romantic interpretations of
nature, as it demonstrates the
sense of strong connection that
Romantics feel toward nature,
as something to be involved in
rather than simply looked at.
During the Romantic age, the
poet’s role changed from a
mimetic to an expressive one.
Before that, the basis of
imaginative writing and indeed
all art, had been seen as having
its origin in man’s instinct for
imitation (‘mimesis’) or
representation. This is echoed
in Biographia Literaria, where
Coleridge describes the ‘primary
imagination’ as being ‘the living
power and prime agent of all
human perception’. “Secondary
is distinguised from the ‘primary’
in being exclusively the
preserve of the creative artist.
The secondary Imagination
‘dissolves, diffuses, dissipates,
in order to recreate’. It struggles
2
 ‘to idealize and to unify’ and is
‘essentially vital, even as all
objects (as objects) are
essentially fixed and dead’.

Cultural Context 3