WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772-1834
WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Revolution and Reform

in the Romantic Period 1
▪ The American Revolution began in 1775
▪ On 14th July 1789 the French Revolution broke out with the
storming of the Bastille
▪ 1792-3, The Terror, the most violent period of the Revolution
▪ 1799, Napoleon seized power and became Emperor in 1804
WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Revolution and Reform

in the Romantic Period 2
▪ The Industrial Revolution grew quickly as mechanisation
replaced craft work and changed England
▪ The Reform Act of 1832 extended the right to vote
▪ Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833
▪ The USA expanded territorially and industrially
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Romantic Poetry
▪ Romantic poets applied the
democratic ideals of the political
revolutions of the time to poetry
▪ The imagination was more important
than reason and the poet possessed
imagination to the highest degree
▪ They stressed the close relationship
of man with nature
▪ The poet’s function was to be the
teacher of freedom and beauty for
the common man
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Romantic Poets 1
▪ Wordsworth, Coleridge and often Blake are considered to be the First Generation
of Romantic poets
▪ Their emphasis is on the self and on its relationship with the world in which it
lives
▪ They also searched
for ethical laws
in nature
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Romantic Poets 1
▪ Wordsworth, Coleridge and often Blake are considered to be the First Generation
of Romantic poets
▪ Their emphasis is on the self and on its relationship with the world in which it
lives
▪ They also searched
for ethical laws
in nature
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

The Role of the Poet

▪ Some poets saw their role as a political one, to criticise or put forward
revolutionary ideas
▪ Some left England to find a more ideal, Utopian environment
▪ Some found refuge
in remote country
areas away from
the industrial chaos
of the cities
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

The Role of the Poet

▪ Some poets saw their role as a political one, to criticise or put forward
revolutionary ideas
▪ Some left England to find a more ideal, Utopian environment
▪ Some found refuge
in remote country
areas away from
the industrial chaos
of the cities
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Coleridge – Early Life and Ideas 1

▪ He went to a charity school and Cambridge University, but did
not graduate
▪ He strongly supported the ideals of the French Revolution but
became disillusioned by The Terror
▪ He also supported the abolition of the slave trade
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Coleridge – Early Life and Ideas 2

▪ In 1794 Coleridge planned to
emigrate to America to
establish a Utopian society
▪ It came to nothing and
Coleridge became a
journalist in Bristol
▪ He met William Wordsworth
and his sister Dorothy in
1795
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Coleridge and Wordsworth

▪ The two poets had similar outlooks and shared innovative
literary ideas
▪ In 1798 they published Lyrical Ballads together
▪ They are considered to be the first generation of Romantic
Poets and had great influence on poets who followed them
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Coleridge – Poetical Works

▪ In addition to The Rime, Coleridge wrote
many other important poems
▪ Kubla Khan (1798) was probably inspired
by an opium-induced dream
▪ Christabel (1797-1800) is a mystical
medieval ballad
WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Coleridge – Later Life

▪ Coleridge’s opium addiction led to a breakdown of his
marriage and his friendship with Wordsworth
▪ He studied philosophy and science
in Germany 1798-9
▪ After returning to London,
he was well-known as a speaker
on literary and philosophical
subjects
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 1

▪ It is the story of a sailor who is forced to roam the world telling
the tale of his voyage
▪ The sailor is a symbol of man and his relationship with God
▪ During his voyage, he kills an albatross and disaster follows
because he has upset the ethical laws of nature
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 2

▪ It is a story of punishment and finally redemption
▪ It contains both natural and supernatural elements
▪ “The Rime” is composed of 143 stanzas, most are of 4 lines each with an a-b-a-b
rhyme scheme
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 3

▪ “The Rime” is a literary ballad.
▪ Coleridge adapted the traditional ballad form for his own literary aims
▪ Like a traditional
ballad, the poem
is highly musical
▪ Unlike a traditional
ballad, its language
is figurative
and the protagonist
is a complex character
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Biographia Literaria 1
▪ Coleridge’s major prose work
explains how he and Wordsworth
planned Lyrical Ballads
▪ It would embrace two different
subjects: everyday life and the
supernatural
▪ Coleridge would be responsible
for the supernatural or romantic
element of the collection
 WHITE SPACES - Culture, literature and languages

Biographia Literaria 2
▪ Originally it was a discourse
on how Coleridge and
Wordsworth came to write
the Lyrical Ballads
▪ It was extended to contain a
wealth of biographical details,
anecdotes, ideas and opinions
▪ One of the major elements is
‘poetic faith’, which Coleridge
defines as ‘suspension of
disbelief’