The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.

Hello, he's been described as the last person to have read everything.

He co-authored the lyrical ballads which changed poetry in English,

and he generously helped his friend William Wordsworth ascend to his loftiest heights, even as he himself fought desperately

against the personal demons that were dragging him down. He wrote some masterpieces of poetry and

criticism. He gave us the words psychosomatic and selfless.

He may have coined the word bisexual and in a fit of love sickness he once signed up for a stint in the Royal Dragoons under the false name Cumberbatch.

He wrote about depression and depressingly had one of his greatest moments of inspiration thwarted by the notorious person from poor luck.

He gave us the ancient mariner and the albatross and Xanadu with its stately pleasure dome and the concept

suspension of disbelief. His name was Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and we'll discuss his life in, around, and through poetry and criticism today on the history of literature.

Okay, here we go. Welcome to the podcast.

We are on our own dizzying assent, I don't, straight to who knows where. Once we were headed straight to

cheesecake, which was my toddler's son's announcement of where he was going as soon as he got his nap out of the way.

And now he's all grown up and we're no longer headed straight to cheesecake.

We're headed somewhere strange and unusual, but at least we're enjoying the ride.

Our focus today is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and we'll start with his father, who was a vicar

in Devon, England in a town called Ottery St Mary.

Reverend John Coleridge, known as an intelligent and decent man,

was also the headmaster of a grammar school called the King's School,

and he had a slew of children, three by his first wife and then ten more with his second wife, Anne Bowden.

Our man today, Samuel Taylor, was the 13th of these children and he was born in 1772.

One might think with all those older brothers and sisters, he'd have been somewhat wild and

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