Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772–1834
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was an English poet, critic and philosopher, born in Ottery St Mary, Devon. With William Wordsworth he published Lyrical Ballads (1798), which opened with his “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and helped launch English Romanticism.
His other famous poems, “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel”, are known for their dreamlike imagery; “Frost at Midnight” is a model of the reflective “conversation poem”. His Biographia Literaria (1817) remains a landmark of literary criticism.
Best-known poems
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Rime of the Ancient Mariner
In Seven PARTS
ARGUMENT.—How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere c… -
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Part I
An ancient Mariner meeteth three gallants bidden to a wedding feast, and detaineth one. IT is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three. … -
Kubla Khan
in Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran … -
Time, Real and Imaginary
On the wide level of a mountain's head
(I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place),
Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread, … -
The Good, Great Man
How seldom, Friend! a good great man inherits
Honor or wealth with all his worth and pains!
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits. … -
The Knight’s Tomb
Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O’Kellyn?
Where may the grave of that good man be?—
By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn, …
All poems (19)
- Dallying with TemptationFrom the First Part of “Wallenstein,” Act III. Sc. 4.
- EpigramsCologne
- Fancy in NubibusO, It is pleasant, with a heart at ease,
- Glycine's SongA SUNNY shaft did I behold,
- Hymn before Sunrise, in the Vale of ChamouniHast thou a charm to stay the morning star
- Kubla Khanin Xanadu did Kubla Khan
- LoveAll thoughts, all passions, all delights,
- Metrical FeetTrochee trips from long to short;
- On an InfantWhich Died before Baptism
- Rime of the Ancient MarinerIn Seven PARTS
- The ExchangeWe pledged our hearts, my love and I,—
- The Good, Great ManHow seldom, Friend! a good great man inherits
- The Knight’s TombWhere is the grave of Sir Arthur O’Kellyn?
- The Presence of LoveAnd in Life's noisiest hour,
- The Rime of the Ancient MarinerPart I
- Time, Real and ImaginaryOn the wide level of a mountain's head
- Work without HopeAll Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair—
- YouthFrom “Youth and Age”
- Youth and AgeVerse, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying,
