Close Critical Analysis of Coleridges Frost at Midnight

Frost at Midnight is generally regarded as the greatest of Samuel Taylor Coleridges Conversation Poems and is said to have influenced Wordsworths pivotal work, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. It is therefore apposite to analyse Frost at Midnight with a view to revealing how the key concerns of Romanticism were communicated through the poem. The Romantic period in English literature ran from around 1785, following the death of the eminent neo-classical writer Samuel Johnson, to the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837. However, in the years spanning this period writers were not identified as exponents of a recognised literary movement. It was only later that literary historians created and applied the†¦show more content†¦562-63, line 1). Later in the poem, he personifies a film of soot flapping on the grate of the fire: Methinks, its motion in the hush of nature Gives it dim sympathies with me who lives, Making it a companionable form (lines 17-19). Such instances are effective in illustrating the Romantic precept that the seemingly familiar or innocuous aspects of nature can still fill the viewer with awe Ââ€" an example of the ‘glorification of the normal as described by Abrams. Coleridge is informed by a distinctly Romantic sensibility, one which takes issue with Samuel Johnsons assertion that all wonder is the effect of novelty upon ignorance (Abrams, 2000, p. 11). Instead, Coleridges speaker meditates with wonder upon such an ordinary thing as soot. As he does so he transforms the film into a friend and liberates the focus of the poem from the immediate confines of the cottage to the more promising realm of memory and imagination. The speaker of Frost at Midnight displays a characteristic reverence for nature Ââ€" possibly the essential concern of Romanticism. In pious tones, he describes the far other scenes where his son will pass his boyhood By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags/ Of ancient mountain (lines 55-56). But it is not simply by the use of such grandiose language describing the topography of nature that nature is represented in the poem. By recalling his ownShow MoreRelated Close critical analysis of Coleridges Frost at Midnight Essay1685 Words   |  7 Pages Frost at Midnight is generally regarded as the greatest of Samuel Taylor Coleridges Conversation Poems and is said to have influenced Wordsworths pivotal work, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. It is therefore apposite to analyse Frost at Midnight with a view to revealing how the key concerns of Romanticism were communicated through the poem. The Romantic period in English literature ran from around 1785, following the death of the eminent neo-classical writer Samuel JohnsonRead More Critical Analysis of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge2513 Words   |  11 PagesCritical Analysis of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge spearheaded a philosophical writing movement in England in the late 18th and early 19th century. Although Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge are often considered the fathers of the English Romantic movement, their collective theologies and philosophies were often criticized but rarely taken serious by the pair of writers due to their illustrious prestige as poets. The combined effortRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge3984 Words   |  16 PagesDan Paulos Mr. Kaplan English IV 10 November 2014 Literary Analysis of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an influential British philosopher, critic, and writer of the early eighteenth century. He was a prominent member of a literary group known as the â€Å"Lake Poets,† which included renowned writers like William Wordsworth and Robert Southey. His writings and philosophy greatly contributed to the formation and construction of modern thought. He possessed an extensive, creative imaginationRead MoreThe Concept of the Individual in Literature of the Romantic Period1762 Words   |  8 Pagesindividual in literature of the Romantic period influenced the genre, and in particular how this was a response to the rationalization of nature and neglect of the individual upheld by the Enlightenment Movement. In order to demonstrate this, a close analysis of some poetic works by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and William Blake will be examined. The Romantic period placed great importance on creativity, imagination and the value of the self, Wordsworth and Coleridge were particularly