Coleridge, Hartley

(1796-1849)

   The eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born at Clevedon, Somersetshire, he is the subject of two poems by his father: "Frost at Midnight" and "The Nightingale." After his parents separated he was brought up in the household of Robert Southey and was educated principally at Ambleside school, where, it is reported, he never played, but passed the time he could spare from school tasks in reading, walking, dreaming, or relating his dreams to others. He went on to Merton College, Oxford, but forfeited his Oxford Oriel Fellowship through intemperance. His foray into teaching was not successful and he turned to the Lake District, where he remained for the rest of his life. His poems, particularly his sonnets, are strongly influenced by Wordsworth, who dedicated his poem "Six Years Old" to him. Some of his poems: "A Brother's Love to His Sister," "Butter's Etymological Spelling Book," "Chaucer," "Dedicatory Sonnet to S.T. Coleridge," "Early Death," "Full Well I Know," "He Lived amidst th' Untrodden Ways" (possibly inspired by Wordsworth' She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways), "Long Time a Child," "Prayer," "The BirthDay," "To Wordsworth."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author. html). English Poetry: A Poetic Record, from Chaucer to Yeats. David Hopkins, ed. Routledge, 1990. Hartley Coleridge (http://www.sonnets.org/coleridgeh.htm\#010). Poems, 1833 of Coleridge, Hartley. Woodstock Books, 1990. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.