How Did Coleridge's Use Of Opium Addiction

Coleridge’s Romantic Style, Opium, and “Kubla Kahn”

The Romantics had easy access to opium sold over the counter. Many writers had endured tragic lives, and the drug allowed them to escape, and they believed it helped their creativity and the process of writing. Fashionable and trendy tales of the Orient such as “Purchas His Pilgrimage” and “Travels through Persia” caused fascination and experimentation with opium. Opium use was glorified and seemed exotic during the eighteenth century. The exotic lands, travel, and adventure complemented the Romantics ideals. Opium products were sold in general stores as well as apothecaries. Opium could be ordered through the Sears Roebuck & Company catalog. These medicines included innocuous-sounding

It could be your best friend, your spouse, your favorite actor or favorite author. During the Romantic period, it was a group of writers and poets that were affected by opium addiction and abuse. Probably many people did not realize the struggles that these very creative and imaginative people were enduring. Some of the writers and poets that abused opiates included Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charles Dickens, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley to name a few. Many of these writers probably started taking the drug for medicinal purposes, then used it for recreational or creative purposes and quickly became addicted. The drug was known as laudanum; it was a form of opium that was mixed with alcohol. The concept of addiction was not understood during their lifetimes, and it was not until the late nineteenth century that people began to understand substance abuse and the effects of withdrawal. Thomas De Quincey wrote about his addictions in his “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” that was published in 1821. De Quincey’s intriguing depiction of drug use influenced other writers in the nineteenth century and beyond, including Charles Baudelaire, Jack Kerouac, and William S Burroughs. Despite drugs having drawbacks, they continued to fascinate writers. The possible creative and imaginative power that opium held was alluring. Coleridge’s poems are evocative, ethereal, and

Their drug use does seem to fuel their energy, lyric writing ability, and their creation of music. It fuels them until some “burnout,” become very ill or die. Many famous writers have sworn by a variety of drugs and the creativity they can produce. In 1797, while close friends with poet William Wordsworth, Coleridge began his notable poetic years which may have been his most creative period of writing. During that time, he wrote, “Frost at Midnight,” “Kubla Khan,” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” among others. “Kubla Khan” was the poem with the clearest connection to opium. In M.H. Abrams’s book “The Milk of Paradise,” he discussed the similarities in poets George Crabbe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Francis Thompson, and English essayist Thomas De Quincey. Abrams inadvertently furthered the notion that opium directly caused imaginative inventions by creating “abnormal light perception” and “extraordinary mutations of space” (47). Many readers concluded that opium increased creativity and imagination in the work of these authors and the role of opium in literary works became a subject of interest and controversy. The author theorizes that Coleridge was already a gifted writer and many opium users do not have the depths of imagination that Coleridge possessed. Poets often had unusual, imaginative personalities and they believed the drug added to their