Editing Samuel Taylor Coleridge (section)

===Cambridge and Somerset===
At Jesus College, Coleridge was introduced to political and theological ideas then considered [[Radical politics|radical]], including those of the poet [[Robert Southey]] with whom he collaborated on the play ''[[The Fall of Robespierre]]''. Coleridge joined Southey in a plan, later abandoned, to found a [[utopia]]n [[Commune (intentional community)|commune]]-like society, called [[Pantisocracy]], in the wilderness of Pennsylvania. 

In 1795, the two friends became engaged to sisters Sara and Edith Fricker,  with Sara becoming the subject of Coleridge's poem ''[[The Eolian Harp]]''. They wed that year in [[St Mary Redcliffe]], Bristol,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.stmaryredcliffe.co.uk/Chatterton.htm | title=Chatterton | publisher=St Mary Redcliffe | access-date=17 January 2011 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703085810/http://www.stmaryredcliffe.co.uk/Chatterton.htm | archive-date=3 July 2011 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> but Coleridge's marriage with Sara proved unhappy. By 1804, they were separated. When Coleridge wrote to his brother he laid all the blame on Sara: "The few friends who have been Witnesses of my domestic life have long advised separation as the necessary condition of everything desirable for me..." Subsequent biographers have not agreed with Coleridge's negative view of the wife he called his 'Sally Pally' when he first married her.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lefebure |first1=Molly |title=The bondage of love: a life of Mrs Samuel Taylor Coleridge |date=1987 |publisher=Norton |location=New York |isbn=9780393024432 |edition=Repr., 1. American }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lefebure |first1=Molly |title=Private lives of the ancient mariner: Coleridge and his children |date=2013 |publisher=Lutterworth Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0718893002 }}</ref>

A third sister, Mary, had already married a third poet, [[Robert Lovell]], and both became partners in Pantisocracy. Lovell also introduced Coleridge and Southey to their future patron [[Joseph Cottle]], but died of a fever in April 1796. Coleridge was with him at his death.

In 1796, he released his first volume of poems entitled ''[[Poems on Various Subjects]]'', which also included four poems by Charles Lamb as well as a collaboration with Robert Southey{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} and a work suggested by his and Lamb's schoolfriend Robert Favell. Among the poems were ''[[Religious Musings]]'', "[[Monody on the Death of Chatterton]]" and an early version of "The Eolian Harp" entitled ''Effusion 35''. A second edition was printed in 1797, this time including an appendix of works by Lamb and [[Charles Lloyd (poet)|Charles Lloyd]], a young poet to whom Coleridge had become a private tutor.

In 1796, he also privately printed ''Sonnets from Various Authors'', including sonnets by Lamb, Lloyd, Southey and himself as well as older poets such as [[William Lisle Bowles]].

Coleridge made plans to establish a journal, ''[[The Watchman (periodical)|The Watchman]]'', to be printed every eight days to avoid a weekly newspaper tax.<ref>Bate, 24</ref> The first issue of the short-lived journal was published in March 1796. It had ceased publication by May of that year.<ref>Radley, 16</ref>

The years 1797 and 1798, during which he lived in what is now known as [[Coleridge Cottage]], in [[Nether Stowey]], Somerset, were among the most fruitful of Coleridge's life. In 1795, Coleridge met poet [[William Wordsworth]] and his sister [[Dorothy Wordsworth|Dorothy]]. (Wordsworth, having visited him and being enchanted by the surroundings, rented [[Alfoxton House|Alfoxton Park]], a little over three miles [5&nbsp;km] away.) Besides ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'', Coleridge composed the symbolic poem "[[Kubla Khan]]", written—Coleridge claimed—as a result of an opium dream, in "a kind of a reverie"; and the first part of the narrative poem ''Christabel''. The writing of "Kubla Khan", written about the [[Mongol]] emperor [[Kublai Khan]] and his legendary palace at [[Shangdu|Xanadu]], was said to have been interrupted by the arrival of "a [[person on business from Porlock]]" – an event that has been embellished upon in such varied contexts as science fiction and [[Nabokov]]'s ''[[Lolita]]''. During this period, he also produced his much-praised "[[conversation poems]]" "[[This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison]]", ''[[Frost at Midnight]]'', and ''[[The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem|The Nightingale]]''.

In 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth published a joint volume of poetry, ''[[Lyrical Ballads]]'', which proved to be the starting point for the English [[romantic age]]. Wordsworth may have contributed more poems, but the real star of the collection was Coleridge's first version of ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner''. It was the longest work and drew more praise and attention than anything else in the volume. In the spring Coleridge temporarily took over for Rev. [[Joshua Toulmin]] at Taunton's [[Taunton Unitarian Chapel|Mary Street Unitarian Chapel]]<ref>Welcome to Taunton's Historic Unitarian Congregation and Chapel (Dec. 2005). {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20020313091448/http://www.bath-unitarian.org.uk/taunton/ Unitarian Chapel, Mary Street, Taunton]}}. Retrieved 21 October 2006.</ref> while Rev. Toulmin grieved over the drowning death of his daughter Jane. Poetically commenting on Toulmin's strength, Coleridge wrote in a 1798 letter to [[John Prior Estlin]], "I walked into Taunton (eleven miles) and back again, and performed the divine services for Dr. Toulmin. I suppose you must have heard that his daughter, (Jane, on 15 April 1798) in a melancholy derangement, suffered herself to be swallowed up by the tide on the sea-coast between [[Sidmouth]] and Bere {{sic}} ([[Beer, Devon|Beer]]). These events cut cruelly into the hearts of old men: but the good Dr. Toulmin bears it like the true practical Christian, – there is indeed a tear in his eye, but that eye is lifted up to the Heavenly Father."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toulmin.family.btinternet.co.uk/joshua.htm|title=Joshua Toulmin (*1331) 1740 – 1815. Calvert-Toulmin, Bruce. (2006) Toulmin Family Home Page|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011223941/http://www.toulmin.family.btinternet.co.uk/joshua.htm|archive-date=11 October 2012|access-date=21 October 2006}}</ref>