THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Frost at Midnight


“Great universal Teacher! He shall mould Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask”. Coldridge emphasizes his understanding of nature in “Frost at Midnight”. His understanding of nature is that it is the greatest teacher of all. Coleridge sits late on a cold winter night and reflects on his life thus far and his child’s future. The contrast between growing up “In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim, And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars” versus in a rural area amongst nature.  In the second stanza he recollects about his childhood and sitting in school looking out classroom window through bars that separated him from nature. The alienation from nature Colderidge felt is displayed in his childhood recollections.  He was not happy growing up where he did. At this point, he turns to say how happy he about presenting his child with the ability to identify with nature and all of its powers. He eloquently paints a picture of the beautiful setting in which his child will be raised. Growing up in the company of nature will give his child the ability to as he states “ 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”.  Although, Coleridge could not become unified with nature as a child, he is content with the idea that he is able to provide a secure relationship with nature to his baby.

1 comments:

Steve Jones said...

Hm. This one reads to me like a kind of summary rather than a focused statement of the kind the prompt calls for. (And where are the slashes between the quoted lines of poetry?)