Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a pivotal English Romantic poet, critic, and philosopher, famous for works like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, a key collaborator with William Wordsworth, and a profound influence on literary theory, though his life was marked by health struggles, self-doubt, and a debilitating opium addiction that began with attempts to self-medicate chronic pain. He helped launch the Romantic movement, explored German philosophy, defined imagination, and co-founded the utopian Pantisocracy project.