Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who helped found the Romantic Movement in England with William Wordsworth.  His best known works are the poems “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan”, the literary autobiography Biographia Literaria, and his influential critical work on Shakespeare. His contemporaries admired his meticulous craftsmanship and depended on his professional insights and advice as both poet and critic. Some believe he may well have originated notion of using common vernacular for poetic imagery and idea central to the Romantic Movement. Although his output was relatively small, he is considered one of the most important figures in English literature.

He was born in Devon the youngest of ten children in the second family of his father, a vicar, who died when Samuel was eight. He was sent to a charity school in London and then Cambridge. He suffered bouts of anxiety and depression throughout his life, which may have been due to bipolar disorder, and was a lifelong laudanum addict, which he took to ameliorate his poor health.