National Poetry Day

The history of Jesus College and its intellectual life includes many famous writers, scholars, scientists, and public figures. 

This National Poetry Day, we remember celebrated Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, who began his literary career at Jesus College when he was an undergraduate between 1791 and 1794.

Coleridge's time as a student was unsettled, interrupted, debt ridden and lovelorn. Ultimately he “left the friendly cloysters and the happy grove of quiet, ever honored Jesus College” before he was eligible to take a degree. Read more about Coleridge, his life and works.