Hartley Coleridge

Hartley Coleridge, possibly David Hartley Coleridge (19 September 1796 – 6 January 1849), was an English poet, biographer, essayist, and teacher. He was the eldest son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His sister Sara Coleridge was a poet and translator, and his brother Derwent Coleridge was a scholar and author. Hartley was named after the philosopher David Hartley. Biography Early life Hartley was born in Clevedon, a small village near Bristol. His father mentions Hartley in several poems, including the well-known Frost at Midnight, where he addresses him as his "babe so beautiful", and in his The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem, both of which are concerned with young Hartley's future. In the autumn of 1800 Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved his wife and young son Hartley to the Lake District. They took a home in the vale of Derwentwater, on the bank of the Greta River, about a mile away from Greta Hall, Keswick, the future home of the poet Robert Southey, which was then being built. Hartley spent his early years in the care of Robert Southey at Greta Hall, which possessed the best library in the neighbourhood.