Samuel Taylor Coleridge began taking laudanum (tincture of opium) in the late 1790s, initially as treatment for what he described as rheumatic fever and various other painful conditions. Some biographers have noted that the symptoms Coleridge described, including the intense itching, joint pain, and fever that drove him to opium, are consistent with parasitic infection (possibly intestinal worms or other parasites) as well as with other conditions. Whether or not parasites were involved, his descent into opium addiction reshaped his poetic career and literary output profoundly.

Coleridge's illness and the opium it drove him to take directly shaped the production of his greatest poems, including 'Kubla Khan' (composed in an opium reverie) and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' The bodily suffering that lay behind his opium use — whatever its cause — gave his poetry its characteristic blend of visionary intensity and self-loathing. While the parasite connection is speculative, it illustrates how bodily afflictions driven by insects and parasites can shape literary careers through indirect paths, including the medicines taken to manage their symptoms.