20 Facts About Hartley Coleridge

Hartley Coleridge, possibly David Hartley Coleridge, was an English poet, biographer, essayist, and teacher.

Hartley Coleridge was the eldest son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Hartley Coleridge's sister Sara Coleridge was a poet and translator, and his brother Derwent Coleridge was a scholar and author.

Hartley Coleridge spent his early years in the care of Robert Southey at Greta Hall, which possessed the best library in the neighbourhood.

Hartley Coleridge was introduced to the study of chemistry by Humphry Davy.

Hartley Coleridge spent the next eight years in constant companionship with his younger brother Derwent, at home and at school.

Hartley Coleridge, who had no aptitude for sports, spent much of his time reading and taking walks by himself, or telling stories.

Hartley Coleridge had one close friend at the time, a boy named Robert Jameson, not a fellow student, to whom he afterwards addressed a series of sonnets.

Somewhere along the way, Hartley Coleridge conceived the idea of an underground stream of water that would eventually erupt onto the surface, creating a mighty river that would soon attract merchants and land developers, leading to the formation of a new island-continent.

Hartley Coleridge called this imaginary paracosm Ejuxria, and laid out its geography and history with great care, explaining everything to Derwent as he went along.

Hartley Coleridge pursued his studies of English in Wordsworth's library at Allan Bank in Grasmere.

Hartley Coleridge went to Oxford in 1815, as a scholar of Merton College.

Derwent Hartley Coleridge made this comment about his brother's time at Oxford:.

Hartley Coleridge had inherited much of his father's character, and his lifestyle was such that, although he was successful in gaining a fellowship at Oriel College, at the close of the probationary year he was judged to have forfeited it, mainly on the grounds of intemperance.

Hartley Coleridge suffered from a dependency on alcohol for the rest of his life.

Hartley Coleridge then spent two years in London, where he wrote short poems for the London Magazine.

Bingley printed a volume of his poems in 1833, and Hartley Coleridge lived in his house until the contract came to an end through the bankruptcy of the publisher.

Hartley Coleridge's figure was as familiar as Wordsworth's, and he made many friends among the locals.

Hartley Coleridge made the following comment about his father's death in a letter to his mother:.

The closing decade of Hartley Coleridge's life was wasted in what he himself called "the woeful impotence of weak resolve".