“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us. But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us.”

English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian associated with the Romantic movement in England. He lived from 1772 to 1834 and is known as a founder of that movement and as a member of the Lake Poets with William Wordsworth. He also worked with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd, sharing volumes and collaborating with them. His reputation rests on writing and criticism shaped by Romantic-era concerns, with work that ranged across poetry, ideas, and theology.