Born the youngest of ten children of John Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (always called "Col") was bullied so viciously by his elder brother that he ran away from home at the age of seven. Though he was discovered and returned the next morning, the memory of that night would provide fodder for his later poetry. After his father's death, Col was sent to live with his hard-drinking Uncle John Bowden, who would often take his ten-year-old nephew with him to the taverns.

After the deaths of two of his siblings in the early 1790s, Col wrote "Monody," and in trying to conquer both his melancholy and an illness, he became addicted to laudanum opium. After unsuccessful attempts to handle both college and mounting debts, Col ran away and joined the army in 1793. As he was entirely unsuited to military service, his brother managed to arrange his discharge by reason of insanity and Col returned to college, where he became good friends with a political radical named Robert Southey. Col met and married Robert Southey's sister-in-law, Sara Fricker, and tried to be a respectable family man. Depressed by the death of his infant son and persistent illness, Col moved to Malta, where he spied for the British Crown. He separated from his wife, became estranged from his children, and despite numerous tries, was unable to break his opium habit. Samuel Taylor Coleridge died 25th of July, 1834.