Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet and philosopher whose literary works lead to the emergence of the Romantic movement, which served to respond to the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment’s principles of rationality. Coleridge collaborated with William Wordsworth throughout his literary career. His works include “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison,” and, most prominently, the conversation poems included in The Lyrical Ballads such as "Frost at Midnight." Coleridge employed concepts such as the sublime, the beautiful, suspension of disbelief, and the pathetic fallacy to convey the nuances of Romantic natures. He used the concept of akedah, which means a “bond” or “tying” to the natural world, to convey humans’ relationship with nature. Ultimately, Coleridge served as a figure of conservatism during the Romantic period.
Mill’s autobiography foregrounds his intellectual development, and Mill suggests that Romantic philosophy shaped his perception of his life. When describing the “the cloud [that] seemed to grow thicker and thicker” for a few months of his life, he quotes Coleridge’s poem “Dejection” to convey this emotion to his readers. Later, he notes that Coleridge is “alone of all writers [he has] found a true description” of how he felt when suffering from a “mental malady,” and he also quotes Coleridge’s poem “Work Without Hope” (Mill 116). Mill has a deep appreciation for Coleridge, and he compares other thinkers to Coleridge, as when he writes that Maurice, Kingsley, and Sterling could be “described as…disciple[s] of Coleridge” (Mill 125). Thus, Coleridge, and the Romantic movement by extension, heavily shape the trajectory of Mill’s intellectual growth. This suggests that emotion may be a factor that figures more prominently than, or just as much as, intellect does in Mill’s autobiography. It is crucial to note that while Coleridge's conservatism influenced Mill, Mill did not fully accept this ideological framework; Mill promoted radical philosophy throughout his own literary and intellectual career, which marks a deviation from Coleridge's own ideology.
"Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Poets.org, 27 February 2021, https://poets.org/poet/samuel-taylor-coleridge.