Gina Mazzella

December 17, 1999

The French and American Revolutions had an enormous impact on the early Romantic thinkers like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. The aristocracies that had been controlling Europe were beginning to fall, the middle class began to grow and power was increasingly falling into the hands of the common people. This may explain why the poetry that Coleridge and Wordsworth produced was aimed at the common man, rather than the educated aristocrats. This meant a shift from elevated language and subject matter, a common trait throughout the "age of reason", and a turn toward spontaneity and emotion, otherwise known as the Romantic period (Spartacus. school net).

The Romantic period, which consisted of the time between 1785 - 1830, can in a sense be synonymous with "nature poetry." Romantic poets often wrote about the beauty of nature, both physically and spiritually. A common theme throughout the Romantic period expressed how an individual must become one with nature.

The Romantics believed that: "ordinary language was the proper vehicle for communication of the soul, for a poet was ‘a man speaking to men.’ For Wordsworth, this meant rural and pastoral language, for he believed that the most important knowledge came from communing with nature. For Coleridge, it simply meant the language spoken by most people at ordinary times" (Abrams 8).

During this time, people began to question what the aim of poetry was. Previous generations had believed that poetry existed solely to change people’s behavior. The Romantics, however, felt poetry should exist as a pure form of expression, especially the expression of intense emotion. According to Wordsworth, in his preface to Lyrical Ballads, the definition of poetry was "emotion recollected in tranquility" (151). The Romantics also believed that a poem should present an organic unity and balance, rather than earlier poetry that was based on a mechanical model, for example, a sonnet. The Romantics often wrote in blank verse and sometimes even in free verse.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the most influential figures in the English Romantic Movement. Born in 1772, he was the youngest son of the vicar of Ottery St Mary, Devon. He was educated at Christ’s Hospital and Jesus College in Cambridge, where he set out with the intention of becoming a Church minister. However, while attending school, Coleridge became interested in politics and therefore, became fascinated with the French Revolution (Spartacus. school net).

In 1794, Coleridge met Robert Southey and the two men became close friends. Together they developed radical political and religious views and planned to immigrate to Pennsylvania where they intended to set up a commune where communistic values would be the basis for their society. Eventually this plan was abandoned; instead Coleridge and Southey remained in England. They concentrated on spreading their radical views and even wrote a play together, The Fall of Robespierre (Spartacus. school net).

After marrying Sarah Fricker in 1795, Coleridge wrote over fifty articles for the Morning Chronicle. This gave Coleridge the opportunity to explain the ideas of Joseph Priestly and William Godwin. These two men were political philosophers who hoped that the French Revolution would stimulate parliamentary reform in Britain (Tate gallery home page). The Morning Chronicle also published some of Coleridge’s anti-war poems including: Fire, Famine, and Slaughter: A war Eclogue (Lycos.com 3).

Most of Coleridge’s work is known for his ability to, "open up poetry to the realm of mystery and magic, in which materials from ancient folklore, superstition and demonology are used to impress upon the reader the sense of occult powers and unknown modes of being" (Abrams 9).

Although Coleridge had been productive, it was not until his friendship with William Wordsworth that he wrote some of his best poems. Coleridge met Wordsworth in 1797 and in 1798 they jointly published the volume Lyrical Ballads, which achieved a revolution in literary taste and sensibility (Lycos.com 5). Coleridge’s main contribution to the volume was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. According to critics like Charles Lamb, one of Coleridge’s closest friends, the "meaning" of this poem is experiential. It is not meant to have a correct interpretation. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is most notable for the effect that this poem impacts the reader. Many critics agree with Lamb when he say’s: "the critical approach involved here amounts, in effect, to an unformulated version of reader - response theory" (Hill 4).

The general inability or reluctance to find a definable meaning for this poem began to disappear in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Up until this time, patterns of meaning emerged, however, as meanings came to be, their very plurality became a problem. For some it symbolized a religious ethic poem; for others, it was a psychological, even autobiographical, study of guilt and terror on behalf of Coleridge’s life. Lastly, there were those individuals who felt that the poem was concerned with philosophy or politics (Hill 4).

Despite critical variety, most people are able to depict certain aspects of this poem in order to categorize it as a Romantic piece of work. The poem relies heavily on supernatural themes, while at the same time including some Gothic elements. The basic interpretation of, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, is that of crime, punishment and redemption (Literature Resource Center). The story is told of a Mariner who shoots a bird. However, by learning to love, the Mariner is in part redeemed. As an act of penance, he must wander the earth and tell people what he has learned through this experience (Literature Resource Center). The most important, as well as the most famous part of this poem, exists in part 7, line 615:

"He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all."

In this stanza Coleridge is expressing his belief in God. He is portraying God as a superior being who loves everyone and everything equally. God created everything on earth and therefore, expresses unconditional love for every aspect of life.

Kubla Khan , is one of Coleridge’s best-known works. In this poem, the Tartar prince Kubla Khan, causes a "pleasure - dome" and "elaborate gardens" to be constructed in "Xanadu". This magnificent creation symbolizes a "balanced reconciliation of the natural and the artificial" (Literature Resource Center). The dream of "Xanadu" itself is an image that expresses the very nature of vision: the fountain that throws up its waters from an underground ocean, therefore, giving birth to the sacred river that stretches five miles long prior to sinking again. In other words, "Xanadu is paradise regained and Kubla symbolizes the creative artist who gives concrete expression to the ideal forms of truth and beauty" (Walsh qtd. in Hill 11).

In lines 37 -54, Coleridge speaks of the "Abyssinian maid," a mysterious maiden. At this point the focuses shifts from visual to auditory. The vision of Kubla’s Xanadu is replaced by memories of the "Abyssinian maid" singing of Mount Abora. His visions of her are lost and the only thing that remains is auditory representation. She is remembered within the context of her song.

Rather than accepting these references to nature and beauty as characteristics of a Romantic poet, such as Coleridge, Freudian critics have argued that Kubla Khan speaks of the poet’s psycho - sexual history. "It depicts the life of a poet -- his infancy and early childhood, the pleasures and deprivations of the oral period, the stimulation and dread of his oedipal period, the reaction to the death of his father at nine, the fear of incest and geniality with the regression to passive - femininity and orality, and the attempt to cope with his life’s problems by the appeal to the muse" (Hill 6).

Although this interpretation is interesting and varies from the norm, it fails to depict certain characteristics of the poem itself. The main focus for Freudian analysts relies on the life of the author rather, than the meaning of his poetry.

Frost at Midnight, which many regard as one of Coleridge’s most successful poems, was written in 1798, while he was still working on "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." "Frost at Midnight," is undoubtedly Coleridge’s own experience on a cold February night. The poet discusses his own sense of separation and alienation from the world around him, as well as, "how an individual could achieve the effect of wonder in the familiar" (Abrams 9).

In lines 1-25, Coleridge speaks of "secret ministry," which demonstrates his yearning to know, as well as explain mysteries on earth. He speaks about the calm in nature; but this "extreme silence," is somewhat misleading, because the frost is performing its "secret ministry" (the owlet’s cry, the baby’s peaceful breathing the numberless going s on of everyday life) throughout the village and the world as a whole (Hill 7).

In lines 23 -43, the poet reflects upon and remembers back to his early days of childhood. One critic, Frederick Garber, states "the poet has moved from being a spectator of his current working consciousness into staring at himself as a child; and what he was doing then as a child is exactly what he is doing now as an adult, playing spectator to an earlier acting self" (qtd. in Hill 6). The poet discusses the times he experiences at Christ’s Hospital, when he felt alone and unhappy. However, he is then reminded of his happy childhood at Ottery St. Mary, and he recalls how the vision of his "sweet birth place" had often lingered with him during school hours (Hill 7).

In lines 44-74 the poet again reflects upon his own past, while at the same time projecting his son’s future and education. He is interrupted from his daydream by "the infant’s gentle breathing," and therefore, momentarily returns to the present time. This eventually forces Coleridge to rediscover himself through his son (Hill 8). Many critics have argued that this experience is symbolic of Wordsworth’s poem, "My Heart Leaps Up." At this moment Coleridge expresses a realization that the child truly is the father of the man (Hill 8).

"Frost at Midnight," has been considered a recorded epiphany. The poem begins and ends with the "secret ministry" of frost. This remains to be a mystery, which is explored but never explained. According to Robert Langbaum, the meaning of this poem "is in all that his been accrued since the original vision, in the gain of perception. But the gain is rather in the intensity of understanding than it what is understood" (Hill 8).

These poems all make use of exotic images and supernatural themes, therefore, further demonstrating Coleridge’s categorization as a Romantic poet.

Unfortunately, while still an undergraduate, Coleridge had begun taking laudanum (and opium derivative). By 1800, he was completely addicted and therefore, moved with his family to Keswick. He continued his studies on philosophy, religion and literature. In 1808 he permanently separated from his wife. From 1816 until his death in 1834, Coleridge resided with his friend Dr. James Gilman in London and managed to get his opium addiction under control (Spartacus. school net). However, rather than being regarded as a brilliant poet, Coleridge was remembered by his friends and family members as an individual "great in promise but not in performance" (Abrams 325).

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Kubla Khan and Frost at Midnight." A Coleridge Companion. 1983: http://

www.uottawa.ca/~phoenix/comp4e.htm (9 Dec 1999).

Literature Resource Center: "Overview of: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and

Kubla Khan." Gale Research. 1999: http://www.pace.edu (17 Dec 1999).

Lycos.com: "Coleridge, Samuel Taylor." 1999: http://infoplease.lycos.com/ce

5/ce011814.html (28 Nov 1999).

The Spartacus Encyclopedia. "Samuel Taylor." 1999: http://www.spartacus

Schoolnet.co.uk/Jcoleridge.htm (28 Nov 1999).

Wordsworth, William. "Preface to Lyrical Ballads." 1802. New York: W.W.

Norton & Company, 1993.