INTRODUCTION
I have analysed a Coleridge’s poem, which is included
in his “Religious musings” and talks about his own view of God and religion in
these days. This topic was frequently used in Romanticism by many authors.
Religion in Romanticism was extremely influenced by
the French Revolution, as were most aspects of cultural life. Prophetic and
apocalyptic texts from the Bible were used to interpret this transformative
event within a British context. Not since the apocalyptic days of the English
Civil War (1640s-50s) had
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772-July 25,
1834) was one of the poets who formed the big six in Romanticism.
His father was
an Anglican vicar, but Coleridge was an intellectually rebellious youth, working
in 1796-97 as a
Unitarian preacher. Unitarianism believed in
the oneness of God and not the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit in one God).2
During his Unitarian period, there was a strong
political influence to his religious thinking. These Unitarian Ideas and
political influence are present in Coleridge's poem Religious Musings which
illustrates the apocalyptic ideas that appeared in British radical
discourse with the outbreak of the French Revolution.
After the French revolution, disillusioned by the
failure of democracy in
to reconsider his Unitarianism.
Coleridge
was twenty-two when he drafted Religious
Musings.
It was first published in his Poems of 1796 and was his most ambitious
work at the time. In that poem, as we have said before, he shows his political
and religious ideas influenced by the Unitarianism and try to establish a
relation between them.3
THE POEM
“Religious
Musings”
1 There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind,
2 Omnific. His most holy name is Love.
3 Truth of subliming import! with the
which
4 Who feeds and saturates his constant
soul,
5 He from his small particular orbit
flies
6 With blest outstarting! From himself
he flies,
7 Stands in the sun, and with no partial
gaze
8 Views all creation; and he loves it
all,
9 And blesses it, and calls it very
good!
10 This is indeed to dwell with the Most High!
11 Cherubs and rapture-trembling Seraphim
12 Can press no nearer to the Almighty’s throne.
13 But that we roam unconscious, or
with hearts
14 Unfeeling of our universal Sire,
15 And that in His vast family no Cain
16 Injures uninjured (in her best-aimed blow
17 Victorious Murder a blind Suicide)
18 Haply for this some younger Angel now
19 Looks down on Human Nature:
and, behold!
20 A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks, where mad
21 Embattling Interests on each other rush
22 With unhelmed rage!
23 ’Tis the sublime of man,
24 Our noontide Majesty, to know
ourselves
25 Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole!
26 This fraternizes man, this constitutes
27 Our charities and bearings. But ’tis God
28 Diffused through all, that doth make all one whole;
29 This the worst superstition, him except
30 Aught to desire, Supreme Reality!
31 The plenitude and permanence
of bliss!4
ANALYSIS
He starts the poem reflecting his Unitarian ideas
about the independence of God, who is only One but at the same time He is
everything we can feel and see and he equals God with Love.
“There is one Mind, one omnipresent
Mind,
Omnific. His most holy name is
Love.”
Coleridge repeats two times “one” to emphasize the
Unitarian Idea of the oneness of God.
He continues the poem in lines 13-14/ 24-31 saying
that although we may perceive ourselves as being alienated from the divine and
sometimes we are ignoring him, everything is together by a spiritual current of
energy that flows directly from God, linking all aspects of creation. It
inspires in us a wish to return to a state of unity, and, as we grow more
conscious of this omnipresent spirit, it will enable us to return to the divine
source.
“But that we roam unconscious, or with
hearts
Unfeeling of our
universal Sire”
In the lines19-23 he speaks about the disaster
of the war, the fight between
“A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks,
where mad
Embattling Interests
on each other rush
With unhelmed rage
‘Tis the sublime of
man,”
Through these lines we can imagine how
terrible the situation was. It is like an apocalyptical vision, but this vision
was a necessary revolution because after it, 1000 years of peace will come.
According to Coleridge after that God will judge all the nations.
“Our noontide
Majesty, to know ourselves
Parts and proportions
of one wondrous whole!”
After this time of violence, a new better time
will come.
In the Analysis of Harold Bloom is it said
that the poem shows: “Coleridge’s efforts to reconcile Unitarian optimism with
the political violence occurring in revolutionary
In my opinion, the form of this fragment of “Religious Musings”,
looks like a homily because of the exclamation marks. Its structure, which has
no divisions, seems to be made to preach.
With respect to the metrical analysis, this
poem has a regular meter but no rhyme, it is a blank verse and his verses have
10 feet. This kind of verses, are known as iambic pentameter, because his
rhythm follows this pattern:
an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable
|
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
|
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
x |
/ |
|
There |
is |
one |
Mind, |
one |
om- |
ni- |
pre- |
sent |
Mind |
CONCLUSION
The thoughts of the major part of the romantic poets
are influenced by the French Revolution when they wrote about religion or other
topics.
Although at first some writers like Coleridge had a
positive view of this violent period, later they changed their opinions because
the results were not what they had expected.
All the relations between the prophecies and the
periods of violence became not true and they felt disappointed.
The French Revolution and the Unitarian tendencies of
Coleridge are the clue to understand the major parts of his works and
indispensable to understand his religious point of view.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. “Romanticism and Religion”.
G.A.Rosso
SouthernConnecticutStateUniversity
<http://home.southernct.edu/~rossog1/BritishRomanticStudies/romanticism_religion.htm>
2.”Unitarianism”
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism>
3.”Samuel Taylor Coleridge” Article by Phillip Hewett.
Unitarian Universalist Historical
Society (UUHS) 1999-2007.
<http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/samueltaylorcoleridge.html>
4. “69. From “Religious Musings” By Samuel Taylor Coleridge”.
© 2005 Bartleby.com <http://www.bartleby.com/236/69.html>
5. “El ascenso de
Prometeo, fundamentos de la poesía Romántica”, Harold Bloom. La máquina del tiempo, una revista de
literatura. Director: Hernán Alejandro Isnardi.
< http://www.lamaquinadeltiempo.com/algode/bloom1.htm>