Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) is an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, is a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.

He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major prose work Biographia Literaria.

His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, is highly influential, and he helps introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture.

He coins many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief.

He is a major influence, via Emerson, on American transcendentalism.

Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffers from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition as yet unidentified during his lifetime.

Coleridge suffers from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses.

He is treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fosters a lifelong opium addiction.