The Man Behind the Laudanum
BiographySamuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devon in 1772. His father, was a clergyman, and moved his family to London when Coleridge was young. It was there that Coleridge attended school (as he would recall in his poem Frost at Midnight). During the politically charged atmosphere of the late 18th Century—the French Revolution had sent shockwaves through Europe, and England underwent drastic political reformation—Coleridge made a name for himself as a political radical and as an important young poet; along with his friend William Wordsworth, they became two of the most important writers in England. Collaborating with Wordsworth on the groundbreaking Lyrical Ballads (1798), Coleridge helped to launch the Romantic Era in England; as Wordsworth explained in the 1802 preface, the idea of poetry inspiring Lyrical Ballads turned the established conventions of poetry upside down. Natural speech was favoured over poetic pattern, simply stated themes over elaborate symbolism, emotion over rational though and the appreciation of the natural over the urban landscape. The Lyrical Ballads inspired future generations of poets and is a significant text among European literature
Coleridge was primarily the poet of imagination, and explored the relationships between nature and the mind. Poems such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan demonstrate Coleridge’s unique ability for creating bizarre, unsettling stories full of fantastic imagery; in his poem Frost at Midnight he muses explicitly on the mind as it interacts with the creative source of nature. Coleridge married in 1795 and spent much of the next decade living near and traveling with Wordsworth. In 1799, Coleridge met Sara Hutchinson, with whom he fell in love, and formed an attachment that would last many years. years. Coleridge later became an opium addict (it is believed that Kubla Khan originated from an opium dream) and, in 1816, moved in with surgeon James Gillman in order to sustain his health. During the years he lived with Gillman, Coleridge wrote many important non-fiction works, including the highly regarded Biographia Literaria. However, he continued to write until his death in 1834, Romanticism was principally a movement about youth, and today Coleridge is remembered primarily for the poems he wrote while still in his twenties. |
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Texts
These are the 4 prescribed poems you must study when learning about Coleridge during the HSC, if you study Romanticism.
Kubla Khan (1816) - Read Here
Frost at Midnight (1798) - Read Here
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) - Read Here
This Lime Tree Bower my Prison (1797) - Read Here
Kubla Khan (1816) - Read Here
Frost at Midnight (1798) - Read Here
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) - Read Here
This Lime Tree Bower my Prison (1797) - Read Here
Summary of poems
Kubla Khan begins with an unnamed speaker describing a man named Kubla Khan who has traveled to the land of Xanadu. The poem's speaker starts by describing the setting of the Emperor's palace, the speaker tells us about a river that runs across the land and then flows through underground caves and into the sea. He also describes the fertile land that surrounds the palace. The nearby area is covered in streams and beautiful forests. Then the speaker enthusiastically describes the river again and tells us of the canyon through which it flows. Then the tone of the poem takes a shift and becomes spooky and mysterious. He begins to describe how the river leaps and crashes through the caverns, first blasting up into a noisy fountain and then sinking down and flowing through those underground caves into an ocean far away.
The speaker then describes the titular character; Kubla Khan, who is listening to this noisy river and thinking of war. Suddenly the speaker moves away from this landscape and tells us about another vision he has had, in which he sees a woman playing a dulcimer and singing. The sound of her song fills him with longing, and he imagines himself singing a song, using it to create a vision of Xanadu. At the end, the poem becomes more personal and strange, as the speaker describes past visions he has had. This brings him to the final terrifying image in which there is a figure with flashing eyes and flowing hair, which gives off a Godlike atmosphere and remains ambiguous as to whether this ‘God’ is malevolent or benevolent in nature.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an epic poem which begins when an old Mariner prevents a Wedding Guest from entering the wedding. The Mariner begins his tale about a disastrous journey he underwent. The Wedding Guest tries to explain that he needs to enter the wedding, but the Mariner takes the Guests hand and continues his tale. The Mariner begins, when his ship leave the port, and sail down near Antarctica to get away from a bad storm, but then they get caught in a dangerous, foggy ice field. An albatross appears to steer them through the fog and provide good winds, but the Mariner shoots it. Shortly thereafter, the sailors lose their wind, and it gets unnaturally hot. They run out of water, and everyone blames the Mariner, as they believe that killing an albatross to be bad luck. The ship seems to be haunted by a bad spirit, and strange occurrences begin, like slimy creatures that walk on the ocean. The Mariner's crew mates decide to hang the dead albatross around his neck to remind him of his error. The Mariner then sees another ship's sail at a distance, he wants to yell out, but his mouth is too dry, so he sucks some of his own blood to moisten his lips. The Mariner thinking they are saved is sadly mistaken as the ship is a ghost ship piloted by two spirits, Death and Life-in-Death. Everyone on the Mariner's ship dies. The Wedding Guest proclaims that the Mariner is himself a ghost but the Mariner states that he is the only one to have survived. The Mariner escapes his curse by unconsciously blessing the unholy snakes, and the albatross drops off his neck into the ocean. The Mariner falls into a deep sleep, with rain waking him. A storm appears in the distance, and all the dead sailors rise to pilot the ship. After a rather speedy journey, the ship arrives in port again. The Ancient Mariner tells the Wedding Guest that ever since then, the urge to tell his tale has returned at unpredictable times. He wanders from place to place, and has the strange power to single out the person in each location who must hear his tale. The Mariner farewells the Wedding Guest with a final piece of advice: that one becomes closer to God by respecting all living things, because God loves all of his creations. Then the Mariner leaves, and the Wedding Guest is left to contemplate this odd meeting.
Frost at Midnight begins with Coleridge as the speaker and the silent listener is his infant son, Hartley. The setting of the poem is late at night, with Coleridge the only one awake in the house. Coleridge, while sitting next to the cradle of his son reflects on the frost falling outside. During this instance of solitude he begins to reflect and describe to his readers his love and admiration of nature. To his unknowing son, Coleridge describes how his love of nature originates from his own childhood, despite being brought up in the city. Coleridge remembers that when at school he would gaze into the outdoors and admires the frost falling outside and would daydream about leaving the city and returning to his rural birthplace. Coleridge tells his son that he is overjoyed that his son will have more opportunities to observe the beauty of nature and will not be raised in a city setting as Coleridge himself was. Coleridge then wishes that every season will be sweet to his son and that his son will learn to appreciate all aspects of nature.
This Lime Tree Bower My Prison begins in prose, with Coleridge explaining how he has suffered an injury that has prevented him from walking with his friends who had come to visit. Then, in verse, he compares the nice garden of lime-trees where he is sitting to a prison. He is disappointed about all the beautiful things he could have seen on the walk. He imagines these sights in detail by putting himself in the shoes of his friends. They walk through a dark forest and past a dramatic waterfall. They emerge from the forest to see the open sky and the ocean in the distance. He thinks that his friend Charles is the happiest to see these sights because he was been trapped in the city for so long and suffered such hardship in his life. The speaker instructs nature to put on a good show so that Charles can see the true spirit of God. The speaker suddenly feels as happy as if he were seeing the things he just described. This lime-tree bower isn't so bad, he thinks. It has its own beautiful sights, and people who have an appreciation for nature can find natural wonders everywhere. Sometimes it is better to be deprived of a good so that the imagination can make up for the lost happiness. The speaker tells Charles that he has blessed a bird that flew overhead. He imagines that Charles will see the bird and that it will carry a charm for him.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an epic poem which begins when an old Mariner prevents a Wedding Guest from entering the wedding. The Mariner begins his tale about a disastrous journey he underwent. The Wedding Guest tries to explain that he needs to enter the wedding, but the Mariner takes the Guests hand and continues his tale. The Mariner begins, when his ship leave the port, and sail down near Antarctica to get away from a bad storm, but then they get caught in a dangerous, foggy ice field. An albatross appears to steer them through the fog and provide good winds, but the Mariner shoots it. Shortly thereafter, the sailors lose their wind, and it gets unnaturally hot. They run out of water, and everyone blames the Mariner, as they believe that killing an albatross to be bad luck. The ship seems to be haunted by a bad spirit, and strange occurrences begin, like slimy creatures that walk on the ocean. The Mariner's crew mates decide to hang the dead albatross around his neck to remind him of his error. The Mariner then sees another ship's sail at a distance, he wants to yell out, but his mouth is too dry, so he sucks some of his own blood to moisten his lips. The Mariner thinking they are saved is sadly mistaken as the ship is a ghost ship piloted by two spirits, Death and Life-in-Death. Everyone on the Mariner's ship dies. The Wedding Guest proclaims that the Mariner is himself a ghost but the Mariner states that he is the only one to have survived. The Mariner escapes his curse by unconsciously blessing the unholy snakes, and the albatross drops off his neck into the ocean. The Mariner falls into a deep sleep, with rain waking him. A storm appears in the distance, and all the dead sailors rise to pilot the ship. After a rather speedy journey, the ship arrives in port again. The Ancient Mariner tells the Wedding Guest that ever since then, the urge to tell his tale has returned at unpredictable times. He wanders from place to place, and has the strange power to single out the person in each location who must hear his tale. The Mariner farewells the Wedding Guest with a final piece of advice: that one becomes closer to God by respecting all living things, because God loves all of his creations. Then the Mariner leaves, and the Wedding Guest is left to contemplate this odd meeting.
Frost at Midnight begins with Coleridge as the speaker and the silent listener is his infant son, Hartley. The setting of the poem is late at night, with Coleridge the only one awake in the house. Coleridge, while sitting next to the cradle of his son reflects on the frost falling outside. During this instance of solitude he begins to reflect and describe to his readers his love and admiration of nature. To his unknowing son, Coleridge describes how his love of nature originates from his own childhood, despite being brought up in the city. Coleridge remembers that when at school he would gaze into the outdoors and admires the frost falling outside and would daydream about leaving the city and returning to his rural birthplace. Coleridge tells his son that he is overjoyed that his son will have more opportunities to observe the beauty of nature and will not be raised in a city setting as Coleridge himself was. Coleridge then wishes that every season will be sweet to his son and that his son will learn to appreciate all aspects of nature.
This Lime Tree Bower My Prison begins in prose, with Coleridge explaining how he has suffered an injury that has prevented him from walking with his friends who had come to visit. Then, in verse, he compares the nice garden of lime-trees where he is sitting to a prison. He is disappointed about all the beautiful things he could have seen on the walk. He imagines these sights in detail by putting himself in the shoes of his friends. They walk through a dark forest and past a dramatic waterfall. They emerge from the forest to see the open sky and the ocean in the distance. He thinks that his friend Charles is the happiest to see these sights because he was been trapped in the city for so long and suffered such hardship in his life. The speaker instructs nature to put on a good show so that Charles can see the true spirit of God. The speaker suddenly feels as happy as if he were seeing the things he just described. This lime-tree bower isn't so bad, he thinks. It has its own beautiful sights, and people who have an appreciation for nature can find natural wonders everywhere. Sometimes it is better to be deprived of a good so that the imagination can make up for the lost happiness. The speaker tells Charles that he has blessed a bird that flew overhead. He imagines that Charles will see the bird and that it will carry a charm for him.
Main themes
Themes
The transformative power of the imagination: Coleridge held the belief that a strong imagination could become a vehicle for transcending reality. Many of his poems are influenced heavily by imaginative journeys, in which the speaker temporarily leaves his physical surroundings, and exchanges this for a fabricated and new setting. Using the imagination in this way is both empowering and surprising because it encourages a total and complete disrespect for the confines of time and place, and thus rational thought. One of Coleridge’s most famous use of imagination occurs in This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison (1797), in which the speaker uses his imagination to take part in journey that he could not physically make. When he “returns” to the physical world, after having imagined himself on a fantastic stroll through the countryside, the speaker discovers, that when he uses his imagination he can turn the so called “prison” of the lime tree into a wonderfully pleasant spot.
The interplay of philosophy, religious piety and poetry: Coleridge used his poetry to explore conflicting philosophic and religious issues. Some critics speculate that Coleridge’s interest in philosophy was his attempt to understand the imaginative and intellectual impulses that influenced his poetry. To support this claim that imaginative and intellectual forces were, organic and derived from the natural world, Coleridge linked them to God, piety, and worship. In his work, however, poetry, philosophy, and religiousness clashed, creating friction and disorder for Coleridge, both in his writing and life.
Nature and the development of the individual: Coleridge admired the unfettered, imaginative soul of youth, finding images in nature with which to describe it. Experiencing nature was an integral part of the development of a complete soul and sense of self. The death of Coleridge's father forced him to attend school in the urban landscape of the city rather than the rural countryside of which he was accustomed. He often mourned the missed opportunities of his sheltered, city-bound adolescence in many poems, including Frost at Midnight (1798). Coleridge believed that nature had the ability to teach happiness, love, freedom, and piety, which in his mind were crucial elements that would create a whole and happy individual.
The interplay of philosophy, religious piety and poetry: Coleridge used his poetry to explore conflicting philosophic and religious issues. Some critics speculate that Coleridge’s interest in philosophy was his attempt to understand the imaginative and intellectual impulses that influenced his poetry. To support this claim that imaginative and intellectual forces were, organic and derived from the natural world, Coleridge linked them to God, piety, and worship. In his work, however, poetry, philosophy, and religiousness clashed, creating friction and disorder for Coleridge, both in his writing and life.
Nature and the development of the individual: Coleridge admired the unfettered, imaginative soul of youth, finding images in nature with which to describe it. Experiencing nature was an integral part of the development of a complete soul and sense of self. The death of Coleridge's father forced him to attend school in the urban landscape of the city rather than the rural countryside of which he was accustomed. He often mourned the missed opportunities of his sheltered, city-bound adolescence in many poems, including Frost at Midnight (1798). Coleridge believed that nature had the ability to teach happiness, love, freedom, and piety, which in his mind were crucial elements that would create a whole and happy individual.
Motifs
Conversation poems: Coleridge strived to imitate the patterns and rhythms of everyday speech within his poetry. Many of his poems address a single figure—a wife, a son, a friend—who silently listen to the simple language of the speaker. Unlike the descriptive, long, digressive poems of Coleridge’s predecessors, Coleridge’s conversation poems are short, autonomous, and often without an apparent poetic form. Idiomatic and spontaneous, Coleridge’s conversation poetry is also highly personal, and incorporates specific events and details of his life in an effort to widen the poetic content. Although he sometimes wrote in blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, he adapted this metrical form to suit a more colloquial rhythm. Coleridge believed that everyday language and speech rhythms would help broaden poetry’s audience to include the middle and lower classes.
Delight in the natural world: Like many other Romantics, Coleridge worshiped nature and utilised poetry as a way to capture and articulate its beauty. Several of Coleridge’s poems express a respect for and delight in natural beauty. Close observation, great attention to detail, and precise descriptions of color appropriately demonstrate Coleridge’s respect and delight. Poems, such as This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, Frost at Midnight, lament the speakers’ physical isolation from the outside world. Even poems that don’t directly deal with nature, including Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, derive some images from nature. To Coleridge, nature contained an innate, constant joyousness separate from the ups and downs of human experience.
Delight in the natural world: Like many other Romantics, Coleridge worshiped nature and utilised poetry as a way to capture and articulate its beauty. Several of Coleridge’s poems express a respect for and delight in natural beauty. Close observation, great attention to detail, and precise descriptions of color appropriately demonstrate Coleridge’s respect and delight. Poems, such as This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, Frost at Midnight, lament the speakers’ physical isolation from the outside world. Even poems that don’t directly deal with nature, including Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, derive some images from nature. To Coleridge, nature contained an innate, constant joyousness separate from the ups and downs of human experience.
Symbols
The Sun: Coleridge believes that symbolic language was the only way in which one could express deep religious truths, and thus the sun was often a symbol of great power throughout his poetry. One such poem is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which Coleridge compares the sun to “Gods own head” and, later attributes the punishment of the mariner to the sun as it dehydrates and ultimately takes the lives of the crew. There are eleven references to the sun incorporated into Rime of the Ancient Mariner, many of which are used as a substitute to God. Troubling things happen to the crew during the day, while smooth sailing and calm weather occur at night, by the light of the moon. Frequently, the sun stands in for God’s influence and power, as well as a symbol of his authority. Additionally in This Lime Tree Bower My Prison the dancing rays of sunlight represent a pinnacle of nature’s beauty.
The Moon: The moon often symbolizes some kind of higher power (just like the sun), but the moon appears to have more positive connotations associated with it than the sun. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the sun and the moon represent two sides of the Christian God: the sun represents the angry, wrathful God, whereas the moon represents the benevolent, repentant God. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner generally favorable things occur during night, in contrast to the horrors that occur during the day. For example, the mariner’s curse lifts and he returns home by moonlight. Meanwhile, Frost at Midnight describes the beauty of the moon as it illuminates icicles on a winter evening and spurs the speaker to great thought.
Dreams and Dreaming: Coleridge explores dreams and dreaming in his poetry to demonstrate the transformative and unlimited power of the imagination. Kubla Khan for example is subtitled “A Vision in a Dream”. According to Coleridge, he fell asleep while reading and dreamed (albeit on laudanum) of a marvelous pleasure palace located in an exotic land. Upon awakening, he began transcribing the dream vision but was soon called away; when he returned, he wrote out the fragments that now comprise Kubla Khan. Some critics doubt Coleridge’s story, attributing it to an attempt at increasing the poem’s dramatic effect. Nevertheless, the poem speaks of the imaginative possibilities of the subconscious.
The Moon: The moon often symbolizes some kind of higher power (just like the sun), but the moon appears to have more positive connotations associated with it than the sun. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the sun and the moon represent two sides of the Christian God: the sun represents the angry, wrathful God, whereas the moon represents the benevolent, repentant God. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner generally favorable things occur during night, in contrast to the horrors that occur during the day. For example, the mariner’s curse lifts and he returns home by moonlight. Meanwhile, Frost at Midnight describes the beauty of the moon as it illuminates icicles on a winter evening and spurs the speaker to great thought.
Dreams and Dreaming: Coleridge explores dreams and dreaming in his poetry to demonstrate the transformative and unlimited power of the imagination. Kubla Khan for example is subtitled “A Vision in a Dream”. According to Coleridge, he fell asleep while reading and dreamed (albeit on laudanum) of a marvelous pleasure palace located in an exotic land. Upon awakening, he began transcribing the dream vision but was soon called away; when he returned, he wrote out the fragments that now comprise Kubla Khan. Some critics doubt Coleridge’s story, attributing it to an attempt at increasing the poem’s dramatic effect. Nevertheless, the poem speaks of the imaginative possibilities of the subconscious.