“In your opinion, how were the poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge shaped by the Scientific, philosophic, religious and economic paradigms of the 18th and 19th centuries?”
The progression of the Enlightenment Era in the 18th century saw a noticeable shift occur away from the empirical, reason-based philosophies of most French and English thinkers; A shift from reason to sentiment and passion. The new philosophies that developed tended to take a new direction, Romanticism. Romanticism stressed emotion and a return to the natural state of man instead of the confines and constructs of society. The renowned poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge elucidates the ways in which poetic works are shaped by the context of the writer. His poems ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’ and ‘Frost at Midnight’ have been influenced by, and so reveal Coleridge’s perspicacity of, the religious, scientific, economic and philosophical paradigms in the late 18th century. Coleridge echoed the shifting context of his time, through his ambiguous and symbolic poetry. The poet has thus propagated an intimate understanding and effectively shaped ones appreciation of the nature and ethics of the movement known as Romanticism. A growing preoccupation with death and an impulse towards melancholy, immortality, the divine, the unintelligible, the unseen, mystical and supernatural, profoundly influenced later works of the Romantic Era. Coleridge’s apparent appreciation of both the dynamism and restorative powers of nature and of its intimate connection with human thought, morality and feelings, helped to define more sharply the Romantics’ idealized contrast between the emptiness of urbanization, and the joys of nature.
Idealism is the philosophic Romantic notion that the external world is formed entirely from human perspective. An increasing emphasis on the self, introspection, identity and individualism, reflect the shifting philosophical values from the Enlightenment to Romantic Movement. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s metaphysical poem, ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’, illustrates the power of a subjective view: imagination. Imagination is conferred as a vehicle for transcending unpleasant circumstances in Coleridge’s poem, where the speaker temporarily abandons his surroundings in exchange for a completely fabricated experience. Hyperbole relating to the loss of his friends, “They, meanwhile/ Friends, whom I never more may meet again/on springy heath, along the hill-top edge/Wander in gladness” ratifies the persona’s predicament and sense of abandonment early in the poem. Here Coleridge directly mirrors the ideas of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who believed that the mind and perspective were far more valuable than analytical thinking. The persona initially accepts his physical limitations, however continues to create his own world, where his mind has superseded his physical entrapment. Alliteration of the heavy ‘l’ in “And there my friends/ behold the dark green file of long lank weeds” inspires a peaceful mood of the sublime. Through the persona’s imaginative connection with the external world, he comes to the revelation that he has been surrounded by an abundance of pleasurable beauty the entire time. The poem explores the sublime, subversive to the Enlightenment mind-set. Ultimately, ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’ gravitates towards idealistic philosophical values of the Romantic Movement, as it depicts a growing emphasis on the autonomous creativity of the imagination.
Rationalism of scientific thinking due to the Enlightenment Era directly clashed with the Romantic concept of idealism. The Enlightenment's dedication to reason and knowledge was founded on empirical knowledge: that is, knowledge or opinion grounded in experience. This experience might include scientific experiments or firsthand observation or experience of people, behaviour, politics, society or anything else touching the natural and the human. For any proposition to be accepted as true, it must be verifiable, capable of practical demonstration. Coleridge’s conversational poem, “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison” manipulates Romantic ideals to fracture ideas of scientific rationalism and empirical thinking. The persona’s physical predicament “Most sweet to my remembrance even when age / had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness!” contrasts scientific relativism as it urges a sense of illegitimacy; the persona cannot provide evidence of this journey physically occurring. As Coleridge postulates about his friend Charles’ journey through the country side “Friends, whom I never more may meet again, on springy heath, along the hill-top edge, wander in gladness” his use of suspended reality, as aforementioned, creates a sense of the power of imagination. This fantasy conflicts with the values of the scientific community at the time; imaginative thinking was perceived as the antithesis of rationality. The first verse is a lament for his dissociation from his friends, and the experiences in nature that they are enjoying on their walk. Furthermore, Coleridge represents the industrial world built on scientific rationalism, as producing “evil and pain and strange calamity!” He continues on to target nature as the source of true wisdom, as opposed to science - “nature ne’er deserts the wise and pure.” The poet ultimately promotes a sense of subjective observation and rejects the cold objectivity of the Enlightenment. Finally, his friend Charles, a man consumed by “the great City” yet “to whom no sound is dissonant which tells of Life,” encourages Coleridge’s dismissal of scientific rationalism, and illustrates his optimistic view of philosophical values. This reflects Coleridge’s harmonization with the Romantic views of blind scientific rationality that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Poets of the Romantic period valued a connection to the natural world, distancing themselves from the economic world. This insistence on the natural world notwithstanding, Romanticism was inextricably linked to the urban world, as it developed alongside it. Romantic poets were against oppression both within the country and outside of it, many of these poets rejected the city, preferring the idealized countryside because it did not possess imperial connotations.
This discontent with urbanization is evident in Coleridge’s poem, ‘Frost at Midnight’, where the persona reminisces on time spent in the city, from his peaceful house in the woods, “How oft, at school, with most believing mind, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, to watch that fluttering stranger.” The calm is so total that the silence becomes distracting, and all the world of “sea, hill, and wood, / this populous village!” seems “inaudible as dreams.” The thin blue flame of the fire burns without flickering; only the film on the grate flutters, which makes it seem “companionable” to the speaker, almost alive, stirred by “the idling Spirit.” These lines contrast between this liberating country setting and the overpowering urbanization that was the city. Coleridge encourages a feeling of the lingering effects of the alienation associated with life in the city through imagery, “The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, have left me to that solitude” Coleridge suggests the indeterminacy of the persona’s lifestyle choices; as “inmates” arouses a sense of imprisonment. His final meditation on his son’s future becomes mingled with his Romantic interpretation of nature and its role in the child’s imagination, and his consideration of the objects of nature brings him back to the frost and the icicles, which, forming and shining in silence, mirror the silent way in which the world works upon the mind. The realization of Coleridge’s persona reflects 18th century economist Adam Smith’s concept that each person, by looking out for him or herself, inadvertently helps to create the best outcome for all. Rather than seeing the link between childhood and nature as an inevitable, Coleridge seems to perceive it as a fragile, precious, and extraordinary connection, one of which he himself was deprived “In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim, and saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.” While there was a tension between the urban and rural in Romantic literature, the city became an indispensable site for Romantic work. It could not have existed apart from it because it was in part a reaction to urbanization. The city connected these poets to the masses, and social consciousness was an important feature for many poets such as Coleridge. Even while resisting the city, urban life influenced Poets of the Romantic Era and helped construct the poetry that has since become associated with this time period.
Religious notions of the late 18th and early 19th century further inspirited familial unity and spiritual connection to God’s creation. This is reflected by Coleridge’s introspection, his ‘abstruser musings’ which take place in complete isolation. One important aspect and recurring theme throughout romantic poetry is the connection between the natural world and children. In Coleridge’s conversational poem “Frost at Midnight”, childhood is a sacred time during which the natural and human realms become intertwined. Coleridge begins by creating a tone of solemn gentleness in the first line, as the frost is described as performing a "secret ministry." Childhood is something that is imbued with an almost holy element, “My babe so beautiful! It thrills my heart / with tender gladness, thus to look at thee” as it is only during this time that a true and pure connection can be made between the three most important realms in existence; nature, god, and unity with the universe. Adulthood becomes a time to consider the practical aspects of nature and to exist within it while childhood offers the opportunity to actually bond with and become nature itself. After Coleridge shares his lamentations on his physical and emotional confinement in urban England during the latter part of his childhood, Coleridge declares, and rejoices in the fact, that his child will be brought up in a more pastoral life and will be closer to nature than his father was. Thus, Coleridge projects on his son his own longing for childhood innocence and his belief that closeness to nature and God’s creation brings happiness. Somber thoughts are presented as he is moved to wonder at the baby's beauty, and turns his mind to the "far other lore/and in far other scenes" which the child will one day learn. He notes his own limited upbringing, kept as he was in "the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim" where the only natural beauty he could ever see was the sky and stars. This baby, on the other hand, will wander the mountains and fields, gaining an education only Nature in all its glory can bestow. The child will learn "that eternal language, which thy God/Utters"; in other words, he will learn the spirit of Nature and see in it the wonder, majesty, and beauty of its Creator. The romantics consider childhood to be a time when nature, humanity, and even “the great universal teacher” are at one with one another and this magic lasts until the onset of adulthood. Once a child is an adult, the mysterious and powerful connection is severed and thus the romantic ideal of a supreme unity of the universe exists no longer. In accordance with Romantic views, Coleridge believes that God is ubiquitous, and therefore that he and nature are inseparable educative forces- “from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and all things in Himself.” This emblematizes Frost at Midnight’s natural affinity with Romantic views towards religion in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The progression of the Enlightenment Era in the 18th century saw a noticeable shift occur away from the empirical, reason-based philosophies of most French and English thinkers; A shift from reason to sentiment and passion. The poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge reflect an increasingly subjective and relativist approach to morality and a growing emphasis on individual spirituality that mechanized the Romantic Movement. The two conversational and highly evocative poems, “Frost at Midnight” and “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison” epitomize the ways in which the philosophical, scientific, economic and religious paradigms of the 18th and 19th centuries shaped the works of Romantic poets. Samuel Taylor Coleridge exemplifies the influence an individual’s context can have on one’s creative mind.
Idealism is the philosophic Romantic notion that the external world is formed entirely from human perspective. An increasing emphasis on the self, introspection, identity and individualism, reflect the shifting philosophical values from the Enlightenment to Romantic Movement. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s metaphysical poem, ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’, illustrates the power of a subjective view: imagination. Imagination is conferred as a vehicle for transcending unpleasant circumstances in Coleridge’s poem, where the speaker temporarily abandons his surroundings in exchange for a completely fabricated experience. Hyperbole relating to the loss of his friends, “They, meanwhile/ Friends, whom I never more may meet again/on springy heath, along the hill-top edge/Wander in gladness” ratifies the persona’s predicament and sense of abandonment early in the poem. Here Coleridge directly mirrors the ideas of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who believed that the mind and perspective were far more valuable than analytical thinking. The persona initially accepts his physical limitations, however continues to create his own world, where his mind has superseded his physical entrapment. Alliteration of the heavy ‘l’ in “And there my friends/ behold the dark green file of long lank weeds” inspires a peaceful mood of the sublime. Through the persona’s imaginative connection with the external world, he comes to the revelation that he has been surrounded by an abundance of pleasurable beauty the entire time. The poem explores the sublime, subversive to the Enlightenment mind-set. Ultimately, ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’ gravitates towards idealistic philosophical values of the Romantic Movement, as it depicts a growing emphasis on the autonomous creativity of the imagination.
Rationalism of scientific thinking due to the Enlightenment Era directly clashed with the Romantic concept of idealism. The Enlightenment's dedication to reason and knowledge was founded on empirical knowledge: that is, knowledge or opinion grounded in experience. This experience might include scientific experiments or firsthand observation or experience of people, behaviour, politics, society or anything else touching the natural and the human. For any proposition to be accepted as true, it must be verifiable, capable of practical demonstration. Coleridge’s conversational poem, “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison” manipulates Romantic ideals to fracture ideas of scientific rationalism and empirical thinking. The persona’s physical predicament “Most sweet to my remembrance even when age / had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness!” contrasts scientific relativism as it urges a sense of illegitimacy; the persona cannot provide evidence of this journey physically occurring. As Coleridge postulates about his friend Charles’ journey through the country side “Friends, whom I never more may meet again, on springy heath, along the hill-top edge, wander in gladness” his use of suspended reality, as aforementioned, creates a sense of the power of imagination. This fantasy conflicts with the values of the scientific community at the time; imaginative thinking was perceived as the antithesis of rationality. The first verse is a lament for his dissociation from his friends, and the experiences in nature that they are enjoying on their walk. Furthermore, Coleridge represents the industrial world built on scientific rationalism, as producing “evil and pain and strange calamity!” He continues on to target nature as the source of true wisdom, as opposed to science - “nature ne’er deserts the wise and pure.” The poet ultimately promotes a sense of subjective observation and rejects the cold objectivity of the Enlightenment. Finally, his friend Charles, a man consumed by “the great City” yet “to whom no sound is dissonant which tells of Life,” encourages Coleridge’s dismissal of scientific rationalism, and illustrates his optimistic view of philosophical values. This reflects Coleridge’s harmonization with the Romantic views of blind scientific rationality that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Poets of the Romantic period valued a connection to the natural world, distancing themselves from the economic world. This insistence on the natural world notwithstanding, Romanticism was inextricably linked to the urban world, as it developed alongside it. Romantic poets were against oppression both within the country and outside of it, many of these poets rejected the city, preferring the idealized countryside because it did not possess imperial connotations.
This discontent with urbanization is evident in Coleridge’s poem, ‘Frost at Midnight’, where the persona reminisces on time spent in the city, from his peaceful house in the woods, “How oft, at school, with most believing mind, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, to watch that fluttering stranger.” The calm is so total that the silence becomes distracting, and all the world of “sea, hill, and wood, / this populous village!” seems “inaudible as dreams.” The thin blue flame of the fire burns without flickering; only the film on the grate flutters, which makes it seem “companionable” to the speaker, almost alive, stirred by “the idling Spirit.” These lines contrast between this liberating country setting and the overpowering urbanization that was the city. Coleridge encourages a feeling of the lingering effects of the alienation associated with life in the city through imagery, “The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, have left me to that solitude” Coleridge suggests the indeterminacy of the persona’s lifestyle choices; as “inmates” arouses a sense of imprisonment. His final meditation on his son’s future becomes mingled with his Romantic interpretation of nature and its role in the child’s imagination, and his consideration of the objects of nature brings him back to the frost and the icicles, which, forming and shining in silence, mirror the silent way in which the world works upon the mind. The realization of Coleridge’s persona reflects 18th century economist Adam Smith’s concept that each person, by looking out for him or herself, inadvertently helps to create the best outcome for all. Rather than seeing the link between childhood and nature as an inevitable, Coleridge seems to perceive it as a fragile, precious, and extraordinary connection, one of which he himself was deprived “In the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim, and saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.” While there was a tension between the urban and rural in Romantic literature, the city became an indispensable site for Romantic work. It could not have existed apart from it because it was in part a reaction to urbanization. The city connected these poets to the masses, and social consciousness was an important feature for many poets such as Coleridge. Even while resisting the city, urban life influenced Poets of the Romantic Era and helped construct the poetry that has since become associated with this time period.
Religious notions of the late 18th and early 19th century further inspirited familial unity and spiritual connection to God’s creation. This is reflected by Coleridge’s introspection, his ‘abstruser musings’ which take place in complete isolation. One important aspect and recurring theme throughout romantic poetry is the connection between the natural world and children. In Coleridge’s conversational poem “Frost at Midnight”, childhood is a sacred time during which the natural and human realms become intertwined. Coleridge begins by creating a tone of solemn gentleness in the first line, as the frost is described as performing a "secret ministry." Childhood is something that is imbued with an almost holy element, “My babe so beautiful! It thrills my heart / with tender gladness, thus to look at thee” as it is only during this time that a true and pure connection can be made between the three most important realms in existence; nature, god, and unity with the universe. Adulthood becomes a time to consider the practical aspects of nature and to exist within it while childhood offers the opportunity to actually bond with and become nature itself. After Coleridge shares his lamentations on his physical and emotional confinement in urban England during the latter part of his childhood, Coleridge declares, and rejoices in the fact, that his child will be brought up in a more pastoral life and will be closer to nature than his father was. Thus, Coleridge projects on his son his own longing for childhood innocence and his belief that closeness to nature and God’s creation brings happiness. Somber thoughts are presented as he is moved to wonder at the baby's beauty, and turns his mind to the "far other lore/and in far other scenes" which the child will one day learn. He notes his own limited upbringing, kept as he was in "the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim" where the only natural beauty he could ever see was the sky and stars. This baby, on the other hand, will wander the mountains and fields, gaining an education only Nature in all its glory can bestow. The child will learn "that eternal language, which thy God/Utters"; in other words, he will learn the spirit of Nature and see in it the wonder, majesty, and beauty of its Creator. The romantics consider childhood to be a time when nature, humanity, and even “the great universal teacher” are at one with one another and this magic lasts until the onset of adulthood. Once a child is an adult, the mysterious and powerful connection is severed and thus the romantic ideal of a supreme unity of the universe exists no longer. In accordance with Romantic views, Coleridge believes that God is ubiquitous, and therefore that he and nature are inseparable educative forces- “from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and all things in Himself.” This emblematizes Frost at Midnight’s natural affinity with Romantic views towards religion in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The progression of the Enlightenment Era in the 18th century saw a noticeable shift occur away from the empirical, reason-based philosophies of most French and English thinkers; A shift from reason to sentiment and passion. The poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge reflect an increasingly subjective and relativist approach to morality and a growing emphasis on individual spirituality that mechanized the Romantic Movement. The two conversational and highly evocative poems, “Frost at Midnight” and “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison” epitomize the ways in which the philosophical, scientific, economic and religious paradigms of the 18th and 19th centuries shaped the works of Romantic poets. Samuel Taylor Coleridge exemplifies the influence an individual’s context can have on one’s creative mind.