Latest news with #SamuelTaylorColeridge
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wanted to ‘bid farewell' to writing at 22, letter reveals
He would go on to write The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, two of the greatest English poems. But in a letter written when he was 22, Samuel Taylor Coleridge revealed he was contemplating packing it all in and fading into obscurity. The letter, which is being offered for sale by the London rare books and manuscripts dealer Bernard Quaritch, details his low mood and disappointment in love, and appears to allude to an opium addiction. The young Coleridge writes he is finishing a work of 'consequence', believed to be his long philosophical-political poem Religious Musings. But he adds that he is planning to 'bid farewell forever' to the stress of writing. 'I mean to retire into obscure inactivity, where my feelings may stagnate into peace,' he writes. Donovan Rees, the head of English books and manuscripts at Bernard Quaritch, described it as a 'sliding doors moment' for Coleridge. Rees said: 'If his friends hadn't stepped in at the right time, and taken him off to Bristol and to his future meeting with William Wordsworth, it is entirely possible his genius would never have revealed itself, and that his depression and laudanum addiction could have led to a very different fate. 'Certainly on the basis of what he had published up to that point he would have only been a footnote in the history of English poetry.' The letter was written to his friend George Dyer, a leading English radical who championed the young Coleridge, in January 1795, shortly after he left the University of Cambridge. It almost certainly alludes to Coleridge's infatuation with Mary Evans, with whom he had been in love since his schooldays. The news of her engagement to another man brought 'bitter disappointment' – as he puts it in the letter. In what may be allusions to both lost love and opium, he says in the letter: 'My delirious imagination had early concentrated all hopes of happiness in one point – an unattainable point! This circumstance has produced a dreaminess of mind, which too often makes me forgetful of others' feelings.' He thanks Dyer for 'a very flattering review of a very indifferent composition of mine', The Fall of Robespierre, a three-act play that Coleridge and Robert Southey wrote with the intention of raising funds for 'pantisocracy'. This was a scheme to found a commune in rural Pennsylvania with 12 men and 12 women who would marry and bring up their children in an equal society without private property. Coleridge is deprecating about some of his first poems, published in the newspaper the Morning Chronicle, though writes that two are 'not so bad as the rest'. Soon after writing the letter, he headed to south-west England and met Wordsworth. In 1798, the pair published a joint volume of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, considered to be a starting point for the English romantic age. A standout in the collection was Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In 1797, Coleridge put his quill pen down on the wondrous Kubla Khan, which he apparently wrote after experiencing an opium-influenced dream. Rees said it was possible Coleridge was being a little dramatic in the letter. 'There is clearly an element of performance – Coleridge is writing to an older and more experienced man whose opinion he very much respected. 'I think we see two sides of Coleridge here. He is both fishing for compliments and yet also self-critical and not satisfied with what he has written so far. 'Luckily Dyer does seem to have risen to the occasion and provided Coleridge with enough encouragement that he didn't retire into obscurity. His was a candle destined to burn bright and hard, not to fade and gutter.' The Coleridge letter, which has a price tag of £10,000, is one of 80 items in Bernard Quaritch's new catalogue of English books and manuscripts from 1500 to 1840.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wanted to ‘bid farewell' to writing at 22, letter reveals
He would go on to write The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, two of the greatest English poems. But in a letter written when he was 22, Samuel Taylor Coleridge revealed he was contemplating packing it all in and fading into obscurity. The letter, which is being offered for sale by the London rare books and manuscripts dealer Bernard Quaritch, details his low mood and disappointment in love, and appears to allude to an opium addiction. The young Coleridge writes he is finishing a work of 'consequence', believed to be his long philosophical-political poem Religious Musings. But he adds that he is planning to 'bid farewell forever' to the stress of writing. 'I mean to retire into obscure inactivity, where my feelings may stagnate into peace,' he writes. Donovan Rees, the head of English books and manuscripts at Bernard Quaritch, described it as a 'sliding doors moment' for Coleridge. Rees said: 'If his friends hadn't stepped in at the right time, and taken him off to Bristol and to his future meeting with William Wordsworth, it is entirely possible his genius would never have revealed itself, and that his depression and laudanum addiction could have led to a very different fate. 'Certainly on the basis of what he had published up to that point he would have only been a footnote in the history of English poetry.' The letter was written to his friend George Dyer, a leading English radical who championed the young Coleridge, in January 1795, shortly after he left the University of Cambridge. It almost certainly alludes to Coleridge's infatuation with Mary Evans, with whom he had been in love since his schooldays. The news of her engagement to another man brought 'bitter disappointment' – as he puts it in the letter. In what may be allusions to both lost love and opium, he says in the letter: 'My delirious imagination had early concentrated all hopes of happiness in one point – an unattainable point! This circumstance has produced a dreaminess of mind, which too often makes me forgetful of others' feelings.' He thanks Dyer for 'a very flattering review of a very indifferent composition of mine', The Fall of Robespierre, a three-act play that Coleridge and Robert Southey wrote with the intention of raising funds for 'pantisocracy'. This was a scheme to found a commune in rural Pennsylvania with 12 men and 12 women who would marry and bring up their children in an equal society without private property. Coleridge is deprecating about some of his first poems, published in the newspaper the Morning Chronicle, though writes that two are 'not so bad as the rest'. Soon after writing the letter, he headed to south-west England and met Wordsworth. In 1798, the pair published a joint volume of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, considered to be a starting point for the English romantic age. A standout in the collection was Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In 1797, Coleridge put his quill pen down on the wondrous Kubla Khan, which he apparently wrote after experiencing an opium-influenced dream. Rees said it was possible Coleridge was being a little dramatic in the letter. 'There is clearly an element of performance – Coleridge is writing to an older and more experienced man whose opinion he very much respected. 'I think we see two sides of Coleridge here. He is both fishing for compliments and yet also self-critical and not satisfied with what he has written so far. 'Luckily Dyer does seem to have risen to the occasion and provided Coleridge with enough encouragement that he didn't retire into obscurity. His was a candle destined to burn bright and hard, not to fade and gutter.' The Coleridge letter, which has a price tag of £10,000, is one of 80 items in Bernard Quaritch's new catalogue of English books and manuscripts from 1500 to 1840.
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Business Standard
20-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
How much liquidity does RBI want: Appropriate, adequate, or abundant?
Liquidity in the system had a deficit of Rs 2.4 trillion towards the end of the last financial year (on March 23); it is now in surplus of around Rs 3 trillion Tamal Bandyopadhyay Listen to This Article Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. These two lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, summed up sailors' plight: they are dying of thirst despite being in the middle of the ocean since all around them is the undrinkable saltwater. These days, if you sneak into the cabins of senior bankers managing liabilities, you'd find them facing a similar situation, with one difference – in place of water is money. The system is slush with money but the pile of low-cost savings and current accounts is depleting every quarter. There is no cheap money
TimesLIVE
25-06-2025
- Science
- TimesLIVE
At Antarctica's midwinter, a look back at the frozen continent's long history of dark behaviour
As Midwinter Day approached in Antarctica — the longest and darkest day of the year — those spending the winter on the frozen continent followed a tradition dating back more than a century to the earliest days of Antarctic exploration: they celebrated having made it through the growing darkness and into a time when they know the sun is on its way back. The experience of spending a winter in Antarctica can be harrowing, even when living with modern conveniences such as hot running water and heated buildings. At the beginning of the current winter season, in March, global news outlets reported that workers at the South African research station, SANAE IV, were ' rocked ' when one worker allegedly threatened and assaulted other members of the station's nine-person winter crew. Psychologists intervened — remotely — and order was apparently restored. The desolate and isolated environment of Antarctica can be hard on its inhabitants. As a historian of Antarctica, the events at SANAE IV represent a continuation of perceptions — and realities — that Antarctic environments can trigger deeply disturbing behaviour and even drive people to madness. Early views The very earliest examples of Antarctic literature depict the continent affecting both mind and body. In 1797, for instance, more than two decades before the continent was first sighted by Europeans, the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It tells a tale of a ship blown by storms into an endless maze of Antarctic ice, which they escape by following an albatross. For unexplained reasons, one man killed the albatross and faced a lifetime's torment for doing so. In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe published the story of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, who journeyed into the Southern Ocean. Even before arriving in Antarctica, the tale involves mutiny, cannibalism and a ship crewed by dead men. As the story ends, Pym and two others drift southward, encountering an enormous, apparently endless cataract of mist that parts before their boat, revealing a large ghostly figure. HP Lovecraft's 1936 story At the Mountains of Madness was almost certainly based on real stories of polar exploration. In it, the men of a fictitious Antarctic expedition encounter circumstances that ' made us wish only to escape from this austral world of desolation and brooding madness as swiftly as we could'. One man even experiences an unnamed ' final horror ' that causes a severe mental breakdown. The 1982 John Carpenter film The Thing also involves these themes, when men trapped at an Antarctic research station are being hunted by an alien that perfectly impersonates the base members it has killed. Paranoia and anxiety abound, with team members frantically radioing for help, and men imprisoned, left outside or even killed for the sake of the others. Whether to gird themselves for what may come or just as a fun tradition, the winter-over crew at the US South Pole Station watches this film every year after the last flight leaves before winter sets in.
Sydney Morning Herald
17-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why religious architecture has the power to inspire even the most sceptical
The principle of Gothic architecture, wrote 19th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is infinity made imaginable. There is something almost inexpressibly inspiring about a 1000-year-old cathedral which lifts us into something much bigger than ourselves, reminds us of our finitude and inspires us to look beyond our daily lives. Europe has many buildings of ancient lineage that are beautiful and grand, with every proportion designed to impress and delight – historic palaces or opera houses, for example. But only places of worship explicitly connect us to the numinous. Cathedrals, soaring upwards, are designed to point worshippers to God, to the eternal, through their airy space, majestic proportions and wonderful decorations. I love entering a historic Gothic cathedral (or small stone church) and knowing that I am standing, sitting or kneeling where untold thousands have done the same, worshipping the same God, and doubtless praying very similar prayers for themselves, their families and their communities. I love that I stand in this vast continuity, connected with the past and the future. I love the faith and commitment of the master architects and masons who often laboured for decades, knowing the work would never be finished in their lifetime. Cologne Cathedral, the longest, took 632 years to complete. People sometimes look at the ambitious size and scope of churches, even in small towns and villages, and wonder why their communities went to such lengths. One of the reasons was that centuries ago most parishioners could not dream of personal riches but, together, the community could – and did – take pride and pleasure in the result. Of course, it is not only believers who seek a connection with what they hold sacred. Many find it in God's magnificent creation, which leads them to reflect on how small a mark our lives make on the universe, or in man-made achievements such as music or art. I, too, am moved by all of these. Perhaps the world's most famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, has written that he is a cultural Christian in this way, that he loves the visible cultural expression of faith – the architecture, the music – while conceding nothing of its inspiration.
