Biographia Literaria and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet who, along with his friend William Wordsworth, helped find the Romantic Movement. Coleridge collaborated with Wordsworth on Lyrical Ballads, a highly influential book of poetry that marked the start of the Romantic age. Coleridge is also well known for writing Biographia Literaria, an autobiography in prose. The book is unique for its loose structure as it is more of a meditative biography instead of being straightforward. Included in Lyrical Ballads is the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which narrates the story of a sailor after he returns from a long voyage. The poem is Coleridge's most famous and is considered one of the greatest in English literature.