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Who was Sara Hutchinson in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s life?

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Portrait of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge, detail of an oil painting by Washington Allston, 1814; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Sara Hutchinson was the sister of William Wordsworth’s future wife and a significant figure in the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. At the end of 1799, Coleridge fell in love with her, a development that exacerbated the tensions in his marriage to Sara Fricker.1

Coleridge’s feelings for Hutchinson were deeply intertwined with his creative and personal struggles during this period. He famously addressed his poem "Dejection: An Ode" to her as a verse letter, using it to lament the unhappiness of his family life and his own depressed state of mind. Although he hoped to maintain a platonic love for her while remaining faithful to his family, this proved impossible, contributing to his declining health and eventual separation from his wife.12

Hutchinson also served as an amanuensis for Coleridge during the publication of his periodical, The Friend (1809–1810). However, the strain of their relationship eventually became too much for her, leading her to withdraw to her brother’s farm in Wales. Her departure prompted Coleridge to terminate his working relationship with the Wordsworths.1