The influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a poet, critic and philosopher to english literature

Аннотация

In this thesis, the famous poet, philosopher and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge influences to the English literature by his romantic poems with his friend and also the poet William Wordsworth by publishing their well-known collection of poems “Lyrical Ballads” at that time. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on October 21st 1772 in the country town of Ottery in England. Samuel’s father the Reverend John Coleridge was a rail respected vicar of the parish and a headmaster of Henry 8’s free Grammar School at Ottery. He was a tenth and youngest child of Ann Bowden and John Coleridge. Samuel considered himself as lonely kid often choosing to stay at home rather than go play ball with his friends. On the death of his father, he was sent to school at Christ’s Hospital School in London, where he stayed there for most of his childhood studying and writing poetry. From 1791 until 1794 Coleridge attended Jesus College Cambridge. In 1792 he won the Browne Gold Medal for the poem that he wrote on slave. Later he met his future wife Sarah Fricker. Their marriage was not a very happy one for the most part, but it did last until his death. Coleridge met William Wordsworth in 1795 who once proclaimed him as the best poet of the age. After their joint publication of “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth went to Germany to begin studying German philosophers and critics such as Conte and Fichte which helped them to alter their 39 thoughts regarding philosophy and religion. At the time when he was studying at Christ’s Hospital which was a boarding school in London, he befriended with several boys, including Tom Evans. During 1788 he and other friends visited Tom Evans’ home in London, where he met Tom’s eldest sister, Mary Evans. Coleridge had warm feelings for her. Evans became Coleridge’s first love and inspiration. However, the relationship lasted only a short while and in 1795 on October, she married to Fryer Todd. When Coleridge made plans with friend Robert Southey to emigrate to overseas, Mary wrote to Coleridge a letter of telling him not to leave. This letter brought him the old feelings and memories. His feelings inspired him to write the poem “Sonnet: To my own Heart”. Coleridge prescribed too laudanum due to attacks of rheumatism and he quickly became addicted to opium. His critically acclaimed poem “Kubla Khan” was actually came from one of Samuel’s opium do streams. Nevertheless, he realized the laudanum was more evil than the diseases it failed to cure. The beginning of the 19th century was a very dark time for Samuel. In the next thirty years things started getting better but he was under the constant care of a doctor and his writing became darker and more gothic. He was a very intelligent writer and a philosopher of his time and when he passed away in 1834, his friends could only think of how the world had just lost an incomparable intellect of the time The collection of poems which is called “Lyrical Ballads’ were written by Samuel Taylor and William Wordsworth first published in 1798. It illustrated the beginning of the English Romantism movement in literature. Romantism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism, idealization of nature and the glorification of the past with a strong preference for medieval time. Coleridge’s most famous poem from the collection of “Lyrical Ballads” is “The Rime of Ancient Mariner”. In this poem Coleridge compares two things by contrast and includes them into one situation. In other words, it all begins with the wedding party where an old sailor tells his story to the guests by catching their attentions. The story is about his life experience, when he accidently shoots to the bird albatross which was innocent and gets the rage of the sea and wind. He faces many troubles in the ship, because of committing a crime which turns to the curse for him. Two hundred people pass away from the curse that he called. Later he suffers in unknown land and finds out snakes next to his legs. He assumes them as a creatures of nature, not the pests as he used to think. Then the curse breaks up by making him free from all sufferings. Finally, the ghosts of two hundred people help him to get him home safely.