Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet, critic, patient
The twin demons of mental illness and addiction caused Samuel Taylor Coleridge to fail at nearly everything he attempted in life. Despite that, he produced a few works of poetic genius that have inspired generations of writers, artists and musicians. Moreover, his critical lectures and essays helped rescue Shakespeare’s reputation and secure the respectability of imaginative literature.
If you love the Bard or Tolkien or Gabriel Garcia Marquez— or Rush or Iron Maiden, for that matter— then Coleridge deserves a measure of your gratitude.
Born today in 1772 — the youngest of 14 children — Coleridge showed his intellectual aptitude early. At age six, he was already devouring books written for adults, including histories and novels like Robinson Crusoe. He hated sports, preferring to read, play and wander by himself.
His father, a village vicar and headmaster in Devonshire, died when Coleridge was eight. His family sent him off to study on scholarship at a boarding school near London, where he remembered feeling “depressed, moping, friendless.” Years would pass between visits home because his family could not afford to cover his travel costs. A classmate recalled how his affluent peers stood “intranced with admiration” to hear Coleridge “unfold, in deep and sweet intonations, the mysteries of Jamblichus, or Plotinus……
