The genius of Coleridge is like a sunken treasure ship, and Coleridge a diver too timid and lazy to bring its riches to the surface.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Coleridge's genius is likened to a sunken treasure, and he is a timid diver who never recovers it.
- In plain terms
- His talent is hidden, and he lacks the drive to retrieve it.
- What can you take from it?
- Great potential needs courage to be realized.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What holds talented people back?
- How can we motivate latent potential?
Another view
The metaphor may oversimplify complex personal struggles.
More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
He was the first poet I ever knew. His genius at that time had angelic wings, and fed on manna. He talked on for ever; and you wished him to talk on for ever. …
Permalink to quote #178 His face when he repeats his verses hath its ancient glory, an Arch angel a little damaged:Coleridge is absent but 4 miles, & the neighbourhood of such a man i…
Permalink to quote #180 The author of Biographia Literaria was already a ruined man. Sometimes, however, to be a 'ruined man' is itself a vocation.
Permalink to quote #177
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