"Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and Personal Reflections

A History of the Times
Every once in a while someone with an exceptional mind is born. Unfortunately, sometimes that person is plagued with poverty and sickness and is unable to perform at their fullest. That was the case for Samuel Coleridge. Throughout most of his life he lived off of friends and small sums he collected from prose works. He lived during the times of the Napoleonic Wars and witnessed the discovery of electricity. However, medical understanding at that time was very primitive, which helped lead to his addiction to opium.
In 1784, an Italian surgeon by the name of Beccana discovered that a static electrical charge could be generated if two dissimilar metals were in contact with each other. …