A World Unseen

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                     In the British Romantic era, poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced works that had alternate worlds hidden between the lines. In his poem “Frost at Midnight”, Coleridge had many patterns including: the sound of silence, both continuing and added ideas, repetition of imagery, repeated words, and paradoxes. These individual pieces can be picked out of the text and meshed together to form a more complex meaning. The two patterns most involved with evolving the underlying message in this work are linked ideas and descriptions of silence.
                A lack of sound is one of the most critical elements in the poem, and is described by the speaker as driving him to distraction. This is a major break from the normal reaction to silence; instead of peaceful, it is troublesome. The room he sits in is “so calm, that it disturbs/ And vexes meditation with it strange/ And extreme silentness” (The Longman Anthology, pg 630 ln 7-10). More disturbing to him is that he believes he should hear sounds from the village surrounding him, but nothing around him breaks the stillness. The line “This populous village! Seas, hill, and wood,/ With all the numberless goings on of life,/ Inaudible as dreams” (The Longman Anthology, pg 630 ln 11-13) paints the narrator’s world as being silent as the grave.
                This element appears more than once in the poem, with a focus on a specific thing which is at that moment heard clearly in the unsettling calm. The narrator speaks of being drawn to two things in the room: his infant child and a piece of soot in the fireplace. “Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,/ Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.”(The Longman Anthology, pg 630 ln 15-16) A sense of unwanted omniscience is projected by the text, as he hears clearly the breathing of a sleeping baby and a speck in the fireplace moved by a draft – sounds that would normally be inaudible.
                A minor pattern of paradoxes begins here and continues for more than half of the poem. Those things that would normally be considered peaceful are to the narrator troublesome. The calm surrounding him, which should relax him and set his mind at ease, keeps him up even in the late hours of the night when all those around him sleep. This shows him to be someone so accustomed to noises – such as a man who had spent years living in a city – which for most would disturb their rest, that the lack of sound keeps him up straining to hear something break the quietude.
                Connected to the silence is clear imagery of winter and the cold. This first appears in line 1, “The frost performs its secret ministry”, putting an otherworldly feel into the setting. In his fireplace there is nothing flickering but a small blue flame, which would give off a pale light but no warmth. As he stares at the cold flame, the spirit of the personified frost works its way into his mind.
                Further deepening the overall meaning of Coleridge’s work is the isolation the narrator feels. As shown in lines 4 and 5, “The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,/ Have left me to that solitude” his sense of loneliness does not stem from merely living alone. Rather, there is something that troubles him on a deeper level and, as evidenced by his use of the word “inmates” has him feeling imprisoned. Even as he reminisces on the happier days of his youth, the sense of imprisonment persists. As he speaks of gazing upon bars in line 26, the narrator sends the message that his mind has become trapped.
                In literature, there are four ideas for which winter is commonly used as a symbol: magic, loneliness, silence, and death. This poem gradually evolves that same symbol to encompass all four. Magic is never more clearly seen than by one who sits alone and free of the tide of noise and distraction the world brings. And few things can separate a person from the world, making them open their eyes to the immaterial realms of the ether, than seeing death. Coleridge links these four ideas to form the core of his poem from whence the true meaning evolves.
                The element of death in this work, though never clearly displayed, can be found hidden between repeated images, symbols, and a few key words. The “Film” or piece of soot that Coleridge mentions was at the time believed in England to be an omen foretelling a visit from an absent friend. While for his childhood self an absent friend meant only one who had gone away for a little while, to the adult version of himself it more likely spoke of him remembering someone who had died. Suddenly, the image of the thin blue flame takes on an additional meaning. A single, pale flame is one of many images used throughout literature to symbolize a departed human soul.
                Twice after this the narrator speaks of the “stranger” whose visit he awaits. Connecting this with his earlier comment of “abstruser musings” as well as his detachment from the world reveals he feels haunted by memory. He was upbringing occurred “In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters dim,/ And saw naught lovely, but sky and stars” (The Longman Anthology, pg 631 ln 53-54). It is here that the origin of his sense of imprisonment is revealed. Having grown up in a stifling environment, the entrapped feeling the city can inflict on its residents never left him.
                Line 43 marks the ending of the first of two major underlying patterns in the work: brooding on the past. It is no coincidence that the events for more than half of the poem played out in the dead of night. Just as darkness gives way to light, and past to present, the initial pattern of gloom and despair is slated from the outset to come to an end. Then Coleridge leads us into a new pattern of hope based on the purity of new life.
                Now Coleridge’s repetition of the “babe” becomes important. Throughout the poem his child has been an oddity in the dim, lonely, and unsettling world surrounding him by being the only point of tranquility in his perceptions. It is in thinking of the child that his melancholy mood comes to an end and he thinks of something happier. His thoughts shift from reminiscing on the past and the inexplicable feelings of loneliness that had plagued him to hope for the future of the babe.
                The crushing void previously surrounding the narrator is dispelled once he stops brooding on himself and his own youth. The memories of what he did not have become a motivation to provide his child all the joys and freedoms in life that he had been unable to find in his own. The second major pattern emerges here as Coleridge paints a new world from his hope and calm determination for better days ahead.
                Coleridge says near the end, “Then all seasons shall be sweet to thee,”(The Longman Anthology, pg 631 ln 65). Even winter, which is normally portrayed by poets as dark and bitter, he says will be pleasant. For the narrator himself, despite still sitting alone in the cold and dark room, he no longer seems plagued by loneliness, perceived imprisonment, or frigid air. The silence, once disturbing and oppressive to him, is suddenly peaceful and liberating to his mind. The image of frost makes a final appearance as he says “Or if the secret ministry of frost/ Shall hang them up in silent icicles,/ Quietly shining to the moon.”(The Longman Anthology, pg 631 ln 73-75) The frost is looked on differently in these last three lines, newly seen as a benevolent guide by the narrator.
                The ideas and patterns in the poem, while rich in meaning when standing alone, are only so many pieces to a much larger puzzle. After analyzing this poem, I have found it to represent a man who, after a life filled with distractions, suddenly found himself alone with his thoughts for the first time. 

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⏰ Last updated: Nov 07, 2014 ⏰

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