Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( )

 I. Life and Literary Career  II. Literary Outlook and Philosophy  III. Major Works  IV. Characteristics of His Poems

I. Life and Literary Career  poet, critic  born in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire  son of a clergy man  received education at Cambridge but left without a degree

 Inspired by the radical thinkers with their idealism, joined Robert Southey in a utopian plan of establishing an ideal democratic community in America, named "Pantisocracy."  In the spring of 1797, met and began his long friendship with William Wordsworth.

 The following year, they published a joint volume of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, which become a landmark in English poetry.  Coleridge's poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, was included in the volume.

 The years 1797 and1798 were among the most fruitful of Coleridge’s life.  In 1798, he traveled with the Wordsworths to Germany.  In 1810, Coleridge quarreled seriously with Wordsworth.

 Although they reconciled with each other later on, their friendship had never reached its former intimacy.  In 1813, his tragic drama Remorse received popular welcome.

 In 1816, he wrote, Biographia Literaria  his major prose work  a series of autobiographical notes and dissertations on many subjects  includes some brilliantly perceptive literary criticism

II. Literary Outlook and Philosophy  Philosophically and critically, Coleridge opposed the limitedly rationalistic trends of the 18th-century thought.

 He courageously stemmed the tide of the prevailing doctrines  derived from Hume  advocating a more spiritual and religious interpretation of life  based on what he had learnt from Kant ( 康德 ) and Schelling ( 谢林 )

 He believed that art is the only permanent revelation of the nature of reality.  A poet should realize the vague intimations derived from his unconsciousness without sacrificing the vitality of the inspiration.

III. Major Works  1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner  2. Kubla Khan  3. Christabel

 his longest major poem  relates the events experienced by a mariner on a long sea voyage.  The Mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony, and begins to recite his story.

1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner  told an adventurous story of a sailor.  the mariner  neglected the law of hospitality  cruelly shot an albatross which flew to the ship through thick fog

 Then disaster fell onto the ship:  the breeze died down  the ship stopped  the hot tropical sun shone all day long

 The other sailors died of thirst one after another, while the mariner alone was alive, being tortured all the time with thirst & the horror of death.

 Only when the mariner finally repented & blessed for the water snake did the spell break & the ship was then able to go back home.  The story moves on through a world of wonder, from mysterious preface to inevitable close.

 Each incident stands out clear & vivid ； each corresponding change in the soul of the mariner is registered.  The whole experience is an ordeal of oppressive weariness.

2. Kubla Khan  composed in a dream after Coleridge took the opium.  The poet was reading about Kubla Khan when he fell asleep.

 The images of the river, of the magnificent palace & other marvelous scenes deposited in his unconsciousness were expressed into about two or three hundred lines.  But when he was writing them down, a stranger interrupted him & the vision was never recaptured.  Only 54 lines survived.

3. Christabel  uses a freer version of the ballad form to create an atmosphere of the Gothic horror at once delicate & sinister.  The tale is an old one of a serpent disguised as a beautiful lady to victimize an innocent maiden.

 The standard trappings of Gothic horror—— the remote castle & the wood, the virgin Christabel in peril & the subtly wicked Geraldine —— dramatize a confrontation with evil through disturbing suggestions of the sexual, supernatural & fantastic elements of dream.

 The moaning of the owl & the crowing of the cock, together with the response of the dog to the regular strokes of the clock, produced the effect of mystery & horror in the dead night.  Opposed to the nightmarish are images of religious grace & the spring of love that had gushed from the poet''s heart.

 It has been said that the thing attempted in “Christabel” is the most difficult in the whole field of romance, and nothing could come nearer the mark.  The miraculous element, which lies on the face of “The Ancient Marines”, is here driven beneath the surface.

IV. Characteristics of His Poems  Coleridge was esteemed by some of his contemporaries & is generally recognized today as a lyrical poet & literary critic of the first rank.  His poetic themes range from the supernatural to the domestic.

 His treatises, lectures, & compelling conversational powers made him one of the most influential English literary critics & philosophers of the 19th century.