How Values of Romanticism Are Inscribed in Two of Coleridges' Poems?
Autor: antoni • February 10, 2012 • Research Paper • 1,917 Words (8 Pages) • 1,830 Views
Discuss how values of romanticism are inscribed in two of Coleridges' poems. Make references to specific images and key passages.
The Romanticism movement occurred between 1752 and 1832. The structure of English society was undergoing large changes involving a reassessment of political, cultural, moral and religious values. The French and American revolutions were happening, the industrial revolution had occurred and the rise of the individual was a prominent part of the movement. These revolutionary ideas began in the enlightenment period and resulted with the Romantic movement. Romantic poets such as Coleridge explored the new ways of thinking which grew out of the movement in his poetry, possessing strong philosophical foundations and sophisticated ideological underpinnings. Coleridges' two poems Frost at Midnight and This Lime Tree Bower: My Prison are representative of the ideologies and radical thinking about society and the individual.
Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a conversation poem set in a isolated cottage during the calm of the night. The narrator, is the only one awake with his child. It is a calm and meditative poem in which a piece of ash fluttering on a grate leads to an imaginative journey beginning with memories of his school days. Coleridge does not leave the confines of the cottage, it is his mind that goes through the imaginative journey, and these thoughts lead him to new understandings and reinforce his faith. This experience of imaginative journey brings comfort to the narrator, the journey assures him of the role of God and nature in the life of his son. It is clear within the poem there are many aspects which reflect the ideologies of the Romantic movement, one being Wordsworth notion of the child. Wordsworth's notion is a celebration of the innocence of childhood, the love that only a child can sense in their hearts and the idea that children are "closest to the kingdom of God". Wordsworth believes that children, and their closeness to God have more creativity and innocence to be unspoilt by the unnecessary vanities of life, hence, they also have what it takes to admire, appreciate, accept, embrace, and love nature for what it is. This idea is represented in Frost at Midnight, although slightly twisted. Coleridge rather than believing that nature and childhood is connected as a necessity he sees it as fragile, precious and an extraordinary connection of which he himself was deprived of and is wanting for his child. There is a unity between the child and nature and the adult's reconnection with nature through the memories of childhood , Coleridge indicates the fragility of the child's innocence by relating it to his own urban childhood. "And saw nought lovely but the sky and the stars". It is here which Coleridge demonstrates
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