COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR. — English poet, born at Ottery St-Mary on 21 October 1772, died in London on 25 July 1834. He studied at Cambridge, attempted a communist experiment (Pantisocracy), and promoted Unitarianism through a short-lived journal. Devoting himself to poetry, he composed The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, and Kubla Khan. In 1798 he published Lyrical ballads with his friend W. Wordsworth. After returning to England 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 attacked in the newspapers. The second part of his life was spent in intermittent critical work, owing to disorders caused by the abuse of opium. His critical thought is contained chiefly in the Biographia literaria (1817). His last work, The Constitution of Church and State, deals with Catholic emancipation, an issue then much debated. Some of C.’s poems are predominantly religious in character (Religious Musings, The destiny of nations, Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni), and allusions to God and religion are scattered here and there throughout his works. His metaphysics, not clearly defined, bears distinct traces of pantheism. In the lyric dedicated to the day of his Baptism and in the epitaph, a note of faith and hope in Christ resounds.
COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR
BIBL.: Letters, edited by E. H. Coleridge, 2 vols., Oxford 1895; Biographia literaria, edited by J. Shawcross, 2 vols., there 1907; The complete poetical works, edited by E. H. Coleridge, 2 vols., there 1912; Unpublished letters, edited by E. L. Griggs, 2 vols., there 1932; Select poetry and prose, edited by S. Potter, there 1934. For the biography, see: E. K. Chambers, S.T.C. A Biographical study, Oxford 1938. For criticism: J. L. Lowes, The Road to Canada. A study in the ways of imagination, London 1928. Alberto Castelli
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“COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 1132. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/coleridge-samuel-taylor.