The Significance of a Higher Power in Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight”
Thesis Statement: Through Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s diction, personification of the natural land, and the blissful simplicity of the child’s life and surroundings, it is demonstrated that nature is an exhibition fueled by God in the poem “Frost at Midnight.”
I. Coleridge’s choice of language and imagery creates a tone that offers the idea of God’s infinite presence in the world.
a. “So gazed I, till the soothing things I dreamt Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams!” (34-35) written by Coleridge offers a dreamy and blissful scenario for the reader to become emerged in.
b. God subliminally makes his presence known particularly in the last stanza, “Or if the…show more content… When Coleridge wrote “Great universal Teacher! he shall mould Thy spirit,” (63-64), he puts it simply that the higher power will guide the child through life and into enlightenment.
b. Coleridge gives a preview to the spiritual journey his child will take by writing “shalt wander like a breeze By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,” (54-56) all of which is made possible by the powerful elements of nature.
c. Coleridge refers to God in the following line, “who from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and all things in himself.” (61-62), particularly the last part “all things in himself” exemplifies how God is nature in its entirety and trusting in him will provide safety and assurance.
Concluding Statement: The cited evidence from Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” in the forms of personification, diction, tone, imagery, and nature’s role in the life of a child further prove that nature is truly an exhibition courtesy of a much higher God or supernatural power. Coleridge, like others from the Romantic period, was heavily inspired with the ideals of free expression and deep emotion that is prevalent throughout his work. He is both phatic and emotive in his writing, which gives the reader a very personable experience, almost as if he is speaking directly into the reader’s