I began reading Holmes’ biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge a few days ago. Reading the first few chapters about his formative years makes me wonder: must all writers undergo a tortured adolescence? It seems that many, if not most, experience some sort of unusual oppression, trauma, or otherwise negative youth. I wonder if people become writers because of their experiences.
I would say that much of my writing does not stem from my own personal experience, but from my imagination. (Perhaps this is why it seems so stunted at times…) It is obvious when examining Coleridge’s life that most of him imagery and themes stem from significant experiences in his youth and adolescence. The death of his father and alienation from his mother certainly had a grand impact on his themes, and he often used the idea of the lonely or rejected orphan. There are even certain instances and objects that are easily traceable to specific poems. A clock ornamented with astronomical images has been traced to his obsession with the sun and moon; some of his time spent tending for a friend influenced his Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is fascinating to me how his art is so keenly reflected in his life.
Admittedly, I have not gotten very far in the book, but you can expect many more updates about it as I go along. I am simultaneously working on his Biographia Literaria and a book of his selected poems. I am also attempting to locate William Bowles’ original book of Sonnets, which had a profound influence on Coleridge’s style (he addresses Bowles quite often in Biographia). I just can’t wait to delve into Coleridge every night.
So, does the experience make the artist? Or does the artist take the experience and make it into art? This question will probably never be answered, though I suppose that I’ll come a bit closer to knowing how it was for Coleridge.
T.C.
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