COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR

COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. - English poet, b. at Ottery St-Mary on 21 Oct. 1772, d. in London on 25 July 1834. He studied at Cambridge, attempted a communist experiment (Pantisocracy), and promoted Unitarianism through a short-lived journal. Turning to poetry, he composed *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner*, *Christabel*, and *Kubla Khan*. In 1798, he published *Lyrical Ballads* in collaboration with his friend W. Wordsworth. After returning from a journey in Germany, he devoted himself to journalism. In Rome, the intervention of Pius VI saved him from capture by the French, whom he had previously criticized in his newspapers. The second half of his life was spent in sporadic critical work, hindered by the disorders caused by opium abuse. His critical thought is chiefly contained in the *Biographia Literaria* (1817). His final work, *The Constitution of Church and State*, deals with Catholic emancipation, a much-debated issue at the time. Some of Coleridge’s poems have a predominantly religious character (*Religious Musings*, *The Destiny of Nations*, *Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni*), and references to God and religion are scattered throughout his works. His metaphysics, though not clearly defined, shows distinct traces of pantheism. In the poem dedicated to the day of his baptism and in his epitaph, a note of faith and hope in Christ resounds.