The Literary Tribute by Fatema Aftab Miah

Page 6
A Dreamer in
Decline
1875-1912
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was known to many as an
avid dreamer and was reportedly enthusiastic in his
youth. He possessed an insatiable thirst for
knowledge that even the demise of his father
couldn’t dampen. From being one of Cambridge's
exceptional students, Coleridge eventually became
an accomplished scholar.
However, Cambridge didn’t pose as much of a
challenge to someone who bore a brain that was
equivalent to a seemingly inexhaustible machine and
over time, Coleridge reached a new low and fell
victim to the claws of depression. After his departure
from Cambridge, Coleridge joined the military in the
early 1800’s which, according to renowned English
writer Thomas De Quincy, was when he morphed into
a full-scale opium addict.