Patricia Atienza Castillejo

First Paper

The Frost performs its secret ministry,                
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud--and hark, again ! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits                     
Abstruser musings : save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
'Tis calm indeed ! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village ! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
Inaudible as dreams ! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not ;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it dim sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,
Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
And makes a toy of Thought.

But O ! how oft,

How oft, at school, with most believing mind,
Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars,
To watch that fluttering stranger ! and as oft
With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt
Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower,
Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang
From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day,
So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me
With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear
Most like articulate sounds of things to come !
So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt,
Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams !
And so I brooded all the following morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book :
Save if the door half opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up,
For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play-mate when we both were clothed alike !

Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side,

Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm,
Fill up the intersperséd vacancies
And momentary pauses of the thought !
My babe so beautiful ! it thrills my heart
With tender gladness, thus to look at thee,
And think that thou shalt learn far other lore,
And in far other scenes ! For I was reared
In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim,
And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.
But thou, my babe ! shalt wander like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores
And mountain crags : so shalt thou see and hear
The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible
Of that eternal language, which thy God
Utters, who from eternity doth teach
Himself in all, and all things in himself.
Great universal Teacher ! he shall mould
Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask.

Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,

Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw ; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,

Quietly shining to the quiet Moo

INTRODUCTION

Frost at Midnight is one of the best known poems written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The poem, the most famous of the conversational poems, was written in the most fruitful period of Coleridge. At this period, Coleridge wrote his masterpieces: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan and Christabel.

Frost at Midnight was the first poem to be included in Lyrical Ballads in 1978, the starting point of the Romanticism.

The author of the poem, Coleridge, wrote this poem in remembrance of his childhood, a childhood marked by a feeling of loneliness as well as attention-seeking.

So, in gegeneral terms, we can say that the surface of the poem is about loneliness, the same feeling of loneliness Coleridge experimented in his childhood, “have left to that solitude”, and a feeling of melancholy which makes the poem a beautiful way to reflexion for the reader.

On the other hand, what is emphasised in Frost at Midnight is the concreteness and uniqueness of the individual experience, because the the poet is all the time in the whole poem explaining these sentiments of solitude.

The first part of the poem describes the scene in which the speaker of the poem, the poet itself, considers the calmness of the scene perfect to remember his childhood days “ ‘Tis calm indeed! So calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange and extreme silentness!”.

In this scene, his baby is sitting nearby, and the poet- an adult person- and the baby- a child- represents a connection between the poet’s memories and the poet as an adult.

The description of places of nature “Sea, hill and wood” has an important role, ‘cause it is the effect of nature on the imagination what is emphasised, one of the main themes of the poem.

The word “dreams” represents here the past, and memories which are now far away, are just like a dreams.

In the second section of the poem, the poet is remembering his days in school. He was an unhappy child in the school (as Coleridge was in real life) and he was absent of mind, uncapable of studying; instead of studying, he would let pass the hours dreaming of his birthplace “already had I dreamt of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower”, and this symbolizes also the wish the poet had to come back to these days, which were far of the school days.

In the last section, the poet makes reference to his baby “Dear Babe”, stating that the baby’s breathings are the only sound by which he is glad to be interrupted in his thoughts “Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm, fill up the intersperséd vacances And momentary pauses of the Thought”.

On the other hand, the speaker, unhappy to have been in the city- ‘cause he has always liked the nature in opposition to the city- states that his child will learn from nature, and consequently, he will like school.

As nature is considered by the speaker as a teacher “Great universal Teacher!”, his child will have a good spirit “he shall mould Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask”.

It is interesting how the poet emphasises the importance of nature and imagination, the two more important concepts of the Romanticism:

-                    to describe the calm, it is remarkable the use of the language: “ that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness” . In this lines, the poet use exaggerated verbs and adjectives to intensify this effect of calm.

-                    “ Echo or mirror seeking of itself, And makes a toy of Thought” can be interpreted as an allusion of Imagination, as imagination is the activity made through thoughts to create something.

In comparison with the other masterpieces of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Frost at Midnight is the only poem in which there is a connection between the mind of an adult and the mind of a child.

However, Biographia Literaria is the work of Coleridge which have more similarities with Frost at midnight, because both are dedicated to explain memories of his childhood, but at the same time are so different due to the fact that Biographia Literaria is the biography of Coleridge, and Frost at Midnight is a poem.