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This psychobiography of the renowned English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, reads as if it were a novel as it chronicles the events in the life of the man who, along with his contemporary, William Wordsworth, fathered modern poetry and the romantic revolution in literature. Weissman traces the life of the famous poet from earliest childhood to the end of his life, covering the familiar facts of Coleridge's addiction to opium, his failed love of Sara Hutchinson, and his close relationship with William Wordsworth, the other dominant influence on English literature at the time.
Weissman's special contribution to an understanding of Coleridge is his focus on the personal, unconscious myth that is repeated throughout Coleridge's life. This myth is the story of Cain and Abel, symbolically dramatized in the crowning achievement of Coleridge's career, the epic poem “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” According to Weissman, the myth became a significant factor in Coleridge's life when he was seven: blinded by rage, he seized a kitchen knife and lunged at his tormenting older brother. Aroused by the commotion, his mother arrived just in time to catch her son's arm and pry the knife from his fist. Caught in the act, and aware that nothing he might say to his mother could justify the attack, he wrestled free from her grip and bolted from the house into the stormy autumn evening. The boy was found and brought home to his joyous parents. So happy to have him safe, no one mentioned the fight or the knife. With careful nursing, the child recovered from the physical exposure and shock within a few days. But thoughts of his encounter with his brother and his ordeal remained buried inside of him. And although he received no further punishment for his deed, memories would echo and re-echo within him for the rest of his life. Having struck out murderously against his brother, he would for the rest of his life feel the mark of Cain.
Coleridge began to learn to curb and disguise his unbridl