Born the youngest of ten children of John Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (always called "Col") was bullied so viciously by his elder
brother that he ran away from home at the age of seven. Though he was
discovered and returned the next morning, the memory of that night
would provide fodder for his later poetry. After his father's death,
Col was sent to live with his hard-drinking Uncle John Bowden, who
would often take his ten-year-old nephew with him to the taverns.
After the deaths of two of his siblings in the early 1790s, Col wrote
"Monody," and in trying to conquer both his melancholy and an illness,
he became addicted to laudanum opium. After unsuccessful attempts to
handle both college and mounting debts, Col ran away and joined the
army in 1793. As he was entirely unsuited to military service, his
brother managed to arrange his discharge by reason of insanity and Col
returned to college, where he became good friends with a political
radical named Robert Southey. Col met and married Robert Southey's
sister-in-law, Sara Fricker, and tried to be a respectable family man.
Depressed by the death of his infant son and persistent illness, Col
moved to Malta, where he spied for the British Crown. He separated from
his wife, became estranged from his children, and despite numerous
tries, was unable to break his opium habit. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
died 25th of July, 1834.
