The Destruction of the Bastile The Destruction of the Bastile The Destruction of the Bastile was composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1789. The poem describes Coleridge's feelings of hopes for the French Revolution as a catalyst for political change. When the Bastille was overrun during the French Revolution and destroyed in July 1789, many political liberals within Britain celebrated. The schoolboy Coleridge, in particular, leaned towards radical views and would later become more and more radical although his views within "The Destruction of the Bastile" are more moderate. Although the poem was composed following the Bastille's destruction, it was not published until 1834. The
Estates of the realm an invitation to revolution. By June, when continued impasses led to further deterioration in relations, the Estates-General was reconstituted first as the National Assembly (June 17, 1789) seeking a solution for the realm independent of the King's management of the meetings of the Estates General which occasionally continued to meet. These self-organized meetings are today defined as the epoch event beginning the historical epoch (era) of the French Revolution, during which – after several more weeks of civil unrest – the body assumed a new status as a revolutionary legislature, the National Constituent Assembly (July 9, 1789). This unitary body