Coleridge in the Romantic Era One of the most influential Romantic writers of all time is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. For most of his career, Coleridge has stood to be one of the best writers in the Romantic era. Joined by Wordsworth, in the latter part of his poetic career, Coleridge explored new directions in poetic language and style. He moved away from the formal and highly stylized literature of the eighteenth century and helped pave the way for a new and more sophisticated writing style. Lyrical Ballads, a joint effort with Wordsworth, was considered by many critics to be the first expression of what has come to be the Romantic Movement in English poetry. Coleridge stands tall as an excellent example of a romantic writer, as he follows the major themes in this literature period, which is relevant in his writing. Two such works that portray what the Romanticism era was all about, are The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan.
English: Draft of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem K...
English: Samuel Taylor Coleridge at age 42. Franç...
English: Titlepage of Kubla Khan.As The Rime of the Ancient Mariner deals with Gothic imagery and nature and its meaning, so too, does Kubla Khan. These poems both overlap several key elements, and tie into the Romantic era. The style of writing that Coleridge uses, perfectly demonstrates what the Romantic literature period was all about.
Gothic imagery plays an important role in romantic writing. Used not for just Gothic writing, this style is evident in many romantic works. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge fills the poem with this kind of imagery. Coleridge develops Gothic imagery as he describes a skeleton ship. The leader of the approaching ship has skin "as white as leprosy,/ The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she"� (Grimes, 128). Here, Coleridge uses a hideous woman whose skin bears the decay of leprosy to introduce a Gothic...