SAMUEL TAYLOR

COLERIDGE :
 Introduction
 One of the most revered figures of English literature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
was a poet par excellence.
 Greatly influential in heralding the Romantic movement with his Lyrical
Ballads, Coleridge’s body of work sets him up a notch above his many
contemporaries.
 Apart from being a noted critic, Coleridge was also a noted critic and lecturer.
 As a poet, Coleridge is best known for his long poems ‘Rime of the Ancient
Mariner’, ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘Christabel’.
 His subtle treatment of the supernatural, coupled with an ability to fuse the
supernatural with the natural in his poetry made his work different from that of
other Romantics of the same era.
 As a critic, his criticisms of Shakespeare are some of the best in English
literature.
 Coleridge’s treatment of nature
 Coleridge could depict both the smallest and most subtle elements of nature as
well as vivid landscapes with uncanny realism.
 His depiction of the subtle elements of nature is perhaps most evident in lines
such as - "stilly murmur of the distant sea” where he successfully captures
the musicality of the sea-water.
 Wonderful imagery of landscapes also ends up being a major part of his
poetry, his poem ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ being the best example of
this. He weaves images through words, depicting almost every scene a
seafaring mariner might come across, wonderful sunny weather, stormy seas,
ice-sheets etc.
 Coleridge also seems to have a fondness of the night and the elements the
night such as the moon and the night sky, for he repeatedly uses these
elements in his poem. His poems ‘Christabel’, ‘Frost at Midnight’
‘Nightingale ‘Love’ and ‘Lewti’ all have a night setting.
 Apart from the broad elemental aspects of nature, Coleridge also expresses a
profound interest in the individual objects and aspects of nature such as the
flowers, the birds and the animals.
 In his poem ‘The Primrose’, Coleridge considers the flower a messenger of
spring, whereas in another poem ‘The Rose’ he tries to express it as a symbol
of his love for his sweetheart, and calls it ‘the Garden’s Pride’. In his ‘Rime
of the Ancient Mariner’, he describes the albatross as “God’s representative’
through the lines:
“At length did cross an Albatross,
 Thorough the fog it came; 
 As if it had been a Christian soul,  
We hail'd it in God's name.”
 Coleridge’s treatment of the supernatural.
 Coleridge's use of the supernatural in his poetry was another aspect that made
his work distinct from that of his contemporaries like Keats and Wordsworth.
 Coleridge chose a subjective, rather than objective description of the
supernatural, where the imagery was left open for interpretation by the readers.
This is especially evident in poems like ‘Rime of the Anaient Mariner’ and
‘Kubla Khan’, where it is difficult to determine what is real and what isn’t, and
thus it is up to the discretion of the reader to interpret the scenes. Thus, keeping
in line with his emphasis on the subjective rather than the objective, one
needs to assess for himself how much of Coleridge’s presentation is real. It
is therefore upto the reader himself to wonder how much of the mariner’s
journey real or what the real nature of Geraldine is.
 Another characteristic feature of Coleridge’s treatment of the supernatural is his
gradual introduction of the elements. He maintains a slow pace, building up the
suspense. In ‘Christabel’, the poem starts with the lines 'Tis the middle of night
by the castle clock, And the owls have awakened the crowing cock;. Lines such
as these instill a sense of dread in the reader’s heart, and give him a sense of
something ominous, without outright representation of anything ghastly.
 Writing about his contributions to the Lyrical Ballads, which includes The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge says that although his characters were
‘supernatural, or at least romantic’, he tried to give them a ‘human interest
and a semblance of disbelief’. In some poems, for instance, ‘The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Kubla Khan’ , the characters, setting and even the
narrators are supernatural. In ‘Kubla Khan,’ the poet represents himself as a
supernatural element, the lines “His flashing eyes, his floating hair!”
signifying the mysterious.
 Another remarkable ability that Coleridge exhibits is his tendency to fuse the
natural and the supernatural. In his poems, sicne even the unnatural and
supernatural elements are fomred from the natural, we are compelled to
believe in them. In ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, the curse befalls the
mariner and his crew only after he shoots the albatross. A seemingly simple
and natural event leads to all the horrors.
 In ‘Christabel,’ as noted before, he uses three common everyday things, an
own, a cock and the scenes of midnight at the beginning of the poem. These
are enough to give the reader a hint of the supernatural, without any explicit
representation.
 Influence of Coleridge’s Life on his Poetry
 Throughout Coleridge’s life, three women; Mary Evans-his first love, Sarah
Fricker-his wife, and Sarah Hutchinson-the woman he fell in love with during
his adult life, had the most profound influence on his poetry. Apart from these
women, William Wordsworth, with whom he had one of the most productive
relationships of English literature, also influenced his poetry.
 Expressing his feelings towrds Mary Evans, Coleridge had written a poem “On
a Discovery made Too Late’, which showed Coleridge at his purest emotional
best, with lines such as “Thou bleedest, my poor Heart!” and “Thy distress
Reasoning I ponder with a scornful smile” perfectly capturing the anguish of
his bleeding heart.
 Coleridge had a failed marriage with his wife Sarah Fricter, for early in his
marriage he was still in love with Mary Evans, and later on, he was in love with
Sarah Hutchinson. However, he did dedicate a few poems to his wife, the most
famous being ‘The Eolian Harp’, which he had written before his marriage,
comparing a married life to the Aeolian Harp, which is a symbol of poetry.
 The influence exerted by his wife on his poetry is also significant because it
shows us the transitions and changes that Coleridge went through during is
descriptions of love. After his marriage, he wrote another poem, ‘Reflections
on Having Left a Place of Retirement’ on similar lines such as ‘Eolian
Harp’. However, this was aimed at a more philosophical rather than
emotional approach to the social bond of marriage.
 During his friendship with Wordsworth, they collaborated on the ‘Lyrical
Ballads’, which was the first volume of poetry written on the lines of
Romantcism. It has also been argued that the best and most complete wors
of Colerodge were written during his time with Wordswoth, poems such as
‘The Nighitngale’ and ‘Christabel’ being a testament of this.
 It was during his meetings with Wordsworth that Coleridge met Sara
Hutchinson, and immediately fell in love with her. He edicated a poem
‘Love’ to Sara, describing his feelings and emotions. Another poem ‘To Asra’
was written by Coleridge, Asra beng an acronym for his lady-love Sara.
The name Asra is used in another poem ‘Day Dream’ where he dreams of
spending a night with both Mary Evans and Sara Hutchinson.
 Coleridge as a Critic and Literary Theorist
 Apart from being a noted poet and lecturer, Coleridge was also a famed critic,
his criticism mainly aimed at Shakespearean literature. He was also a theorist
of the English language.
 It has been argued that Coleridge took up criticisms when he felt his potential
as a poet had diminished and he could no longer do justice to his poetry. His
letters to . His letters to William Godwin in 1801 are a testament to this for he
himself notes in those letters- "The poet in me is dead. I have altogether
abandoned it ... being convinced that I never had the essentials of poetic
genius, and that I mistook a strong desire for original power”
 As a critic however, he was mostly criticized for lacking objectivity. Thus,
sometimes Coleridge ends up looking at a body of work from his own
personal perspectives rather than from a general standpoint, which is expected
from a critic of his stature, his criticisms often influenced by his ego.
 Another negative quality of Coleridge’s criticisms is that he tends to
umdermine the works of his contemporaries for no apparent reason, thus
contributing to the fact that he writes his criticisms from a subjective
perspective.
 It was not his practical criticisms however, which earned him his stature as
one of the most prominent critics of English literature; rather it was his
critical analysis of the theoretical and philosophical views on English.
 These were greatly influenced by Kant’s philosophies, Coleridge’s concepts
such as the importance of imagination in poetry already having made an
appearance in Kant’s ‘Critique of Judgment’ .
 In his writings Coleridge also tried to examine the psychological aspects of
literature, examining the influence of a body of work on both the creator and
the reader , and the differences in the impacts that the same body of literature
have on both. These works later went on to become pioneering works in the
fields, as evidenced by their presence in the works of scholars like Arthur
Koestler.
 Conclusion
 One of the stalwarts of English literature, S.T Coleridge was a brilliant poet,
one of the best Romantics of his generation.
 His treatment of nature as well as his expression of the supernatural made his
poetry distinct from that of his contemporaries.
 His associations with the various people in his life greatly influenced his poetry,
the major figures being William Wordsworth, Mary Evans, Sarah Fricter and
Sarah Hutchinson
 Due to a debilitating addiction to opium, his poetic prowess was diminished to
the point where he believed he could no longer do justice to his poetry, and thus
he took up the career of a poet.
 His criticisms of Shakespeare were among the best in english literature, his
work as a english theorist being pioneering in its own right.
 Despite a body of work that could not compete with his contemporaries in
terms of quantity Coleridge’s quality and excellence built him a position among
the many greats of English romantic literature.