colridge

1. Characteristics of Coleridge as a Romantic Poet
“Lyrical Ballads” published in 1798 is a joint venture of Wordsworth and Coleridge
which is a key to understand all the poetry of the Romantic Age including that of
Coleridge.
This joint adventure was taken by Wordsworth and Coleridge to find out a balance
between the two extremes; the tendency to realism and the tendency to romance in their
extreme forms. These two poets felt that English poetry needed first that romance
should be saved and ennobled by the presence and the power of truth-truth moral and
psychological, and secondly that naturalism (realism) without losing any of its fidelity to
fact, should be saved and ennobled by the presence and power of imagination _ the light
that never was, on sea or land.
In this respect both the poets agreed to present two different kinds of poems. Coleridge
chose such series of poems in which the incidents and agents were to be, in part at
supernatural, and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interest of affections by
the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would natural accompany such situations,
supposing them real. For the second kinds of poems that were mainly to be presented by
Wordsworth were such poems in which the subjects were to be chosen from ordinary
life. The characters and the incidents were to be such as will be found in every village
and vicinity where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or to notice
them when they present themselves. In this idea originated the plan of the ‘Lyrical
Ballade’. In this plan it was agreed that Coleridge’s endeavors should be directed to
persons and characters supernatural or at least romantic. However, such supernatural
element should not be void of human interest and inward nature of man. It must
contain the semblance of truth sufficient to procure of these shadows imagination that
willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitute poetic faith.
Wordswoth, on the other hand was to propose to himself as his object, to give charm of
novelty to things of everyday, and to excite a feeling similar to the supernatural by
awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the
loveliness and the wonders of the world before us. Of custom, and directing it to the
loveliness and the wonders of the world before us.
In the light of the above plan of both the poets, and in the light of Coleridge’s poetry
itself, we find the following chief characteristics in Coleridge’s poetry. These
characteristics are; supernaturalism, element of mystery, fertile imagination, dream
quality, medievalism, love of Nature, meditative note, humanitarianism, music and
narrative skill which distinguish Coleridge’s poetry as the most complete representative
of the English Romantic poetry of the early nineteenth century.
Let us take these characteristics of Coleridge poetry one by one:
Supernaturalism: Supernaturalism is something that is above and beyond what is
natural; events which cannot be directly explained by known laws and observations.
Exploration of the occult (supposedly supernatural or magic) and of infinity, mysticism,
and numerology (study of the supposed influence of number) are some other
manifestation of the intense desire of man to know what exists or lies beyond the finite

2. mind. Imaginative and inventive fiction and poetry have been created upon this appeal.
This element of supernaturalism is found in the three major works of Coleridge, ‘The
Ancient Mariner’, ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘Christabel”. The outstanding quality of Coleridge ’s
supernaturalism, however, is that his writings do not excite one’s senses to a feverish
pitch and do not remain remote from human reality. He is capable of creating the still,
sad music of humanity. In his supernaturalism we do not find any kind of crudeness as
is found in other poets Horace and Monk Lewis. He replaced the crudeness with
suggestiveness. He did not portray horror, he suggested it. Both in the cases of the
Night-mare Life-in-Death and the serpent woman Geraldine, he resists the temptation
of depicting their hideous monstrosity. He conveys the gruesomeness (horrification) of
Life-in-Death in a few suggestive lines.
Her lips were red, her looks were free
Her locks were yellow as gold
Her skin was white as leprosy
The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she
Wh o th ic ks Man’s blood with c old.
Or th rou gh th e Mariner’s response to h er
Fear at my heart, as at a cup
My life-blood seemed to sip.
I n th e sam e m anner the repu lsiveness (u npleasantness) of Geraldine’s u gly bosom is
conveyed through a clever suggestion,
A sight to dream of, not to tell!
O shield her! Shield sweet Christabel!
Coleridge has successfully kept the reality of supernatural phenomena by avoiding the
descriptions of details. He deepens his effect by mystery surrounding it. Along with this
Coleridge’s supernaturalism has essentially psychological truth in it. The supernatural
touches in ‘Kubla Khan’ or ‘The Ancient Mariner’ are so managed that they are in perfect
harmony with the mental and emotional moulds of the characters as well as the readers.
The ancestral voices heard by Kubla Khan prophesy war. The poet in his poetic frenzy is
capable of building supernatural awe in the minds of the readers when the people
coming see his castle see his flashing eyes and waving hair and draw a circle around him
thrice to keep them safe from this man who has been fed on honey and dew and drank
the milk of paradise. The supernatural drama of the ‘The Ancient Mariner’ catches hold
of the readers’ sub-conscious mind. This is, however, noteworthy that Coleridge like
Homer and Shakespeare makes the element of supernaturalism the part of a wider
scheme which is intimately related to living human experience. The central idea of the
need of human love and compassion with man, bird and beast and the entire creation of
God and the painful experience caused by their absence is so intensely human that even
the supernatural character of the events cannot becloud its truthfulness.
Element of Mystery or Mysteriousness: Mysteriousness is that condition in which
some character, event or situation remains hidden and is not revealed to the usual vision
or common understanding. It is not completely known but makes its presence feel to the
people. Coleridge possesses an unusual gift of evoking the mystery of things. The
Ancient Mariner is made a mysterious character just by the mention of the glittering

3. eyes long grey beard and skinny hands. Geraldine’s sudden appearance in an
unexpected circumstance makes her mysterious. Her being beautiful exceedingly also
makes her mysterious. But Coleridge uses this faculty most effectively by keeping alive
the ordinary natural phenomena intact. The blowing of the winds and the twinkling of
stars assume a mysterious character. Mast-high ice sending a dismal sheen and making
cracking and growling sound is bound to appear mysterious. Similarly mysterious is
found in the death fires dancing in red and rout and water burning green, blue and
white like a witch’s oils. The romantic chasm in ‘Kubla Khan’ is given a touch of mystery
by the mention of the ‘woman wailing for her demon love.’
Fertile and Rich imagination: Imagination is a mental faculty of framing images of
external objects which are not present to the five senses. It is a process of using all the
faculties so as to realize with intensity what is not perceived, and to do this in a way that
integrates and orders everything present to the mind so that reality is enhanced thereby.
Coleridge in his ‘Biographia Literaria’ writes of imagination thus; ‘The power reveals
itself in the balance or reconcilement of opposite and discordant qualities of sameness,
with the differences of the general; with the concrete; the idea with the image; the
individual with the representative; the sense of novelty and freshness with old familiar
objects; a more than usual state of emotion with more than usual order. We see that
Coleridge’s imagination has all these qualities to a superb order.
Coleridge is gifted with the most fertile and vigorous imagination among all the
Romantic Poets. It is by this rich and fertile imagination that he is able to create his
perplexing mystery. In this respect he goes ahead of Wordsworth who was too
conscientious to describe or present those things that were not seen personally by him.
Coleridge, on the other hand, was able to describe and present those things which he
came across during his vast study through his faculty of imagination. He had the faculty
of presenting such unseen and inexperienced things so vividly as if those had been
literally present before his eyes. He presents the place of Kubla Khan’s palace as he was
practically present there, ‘here Kubla Khan commanded a palace to be built and a stately
garden there unto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground was enclosed with a wall,’ set
imagination on fire and we can have vivid picture of Kubla Khan’s stately pleasure
dome. According to the great Greek critic Longinus, a great writer is that one who has
the capability of transporting the reader to his own imaginative world. Coleridge, no
doubt, was bestowed with this quality. Not only this, he had the rare skill to create an
imaginary world, changed it into imaginative and then transformed it to a make-belief
condition. The world created by Coleridge in his whole poem of ‘The Ancient Mariner’ is
the best example of this faculty of Coleridge. J.L. Lowes’ book ‘The Road to Xanadu’
amply illustrates how Coleridge’s imagination could transform simple facts collected
during his reading into something mysterious and wonderful.
Dream Quality: Dream quality is a quality of imagining while asleep. It is a process of
or a sequence of images that appear involuntarily to the mind of a sleeping person, often
a mixture of real and imaginary characters, places and events. The major poems of
Coleridge have a strange dream like atmosphere about them. Dreams with him are no
shadows. They are the very substance of his life. He fed on his dreams and vitalized him

4. in his poems. ‘Kubla Khan’ is essentially a dream poem recounting in a poetic form what
he saw in a vision. ‘The Ancient Mariner’ displays a dream- like movement. C.M Bowra
in the ‘Romantic Imagination’ illustrates the affinity of ‘The ancient Mariner’ with a
dream. ‘On the surface it shows many qualities of a dream,’ he says. ‘It moves in abrupt
stages each of which has its own single dominating character. Its visual impressions are
remarkably brilliant and absorbing. Its emotional impacts change rapidly but always
come with unusual force as if the poet were hunted and obsessed by them. When it is all
over, to cling to the memory with a peculiar tenacity (tending to stick firmly) just as on
waking it is difficult at first to disentangle (get freed) ordinary experience from
influences which still survive from sleep.’ The dramatic texture (structure) of Coleridge’s
poems gives them a kind of twilight vagueness intensifying their mystery.
Medievalism: Medievalism means devotion to the middle Ages, a devotion to the spirit
of beliefs of the middle Ages. Coleridge’s love for supernatural led him to the exploration
of Middle Ages. He was fascinated by the romance and legends associated with them.
‘The Ancient Mariner’ ‘Christable’ and ‘Kubla Khan’ are all wrought with the glamour’s
of Middle Ages. But it should be kept in mind that Medievalism does not form the
substance of his poems. It gives them the much needed sense of remoteness and offers a
fit setting for the marvelous which is Coleridge’s purpose to hint at or openly display.
Love of Nature: Nature means a physical world including all natural phenomena and
living things. It also means a force that is represented before man in the form of
beautiful scenes. Wordsworth is stated to be communicating new order of experience for
which Nature serves us a point of departure and there was not such an experience in
English poetry before his time. Coleridge shows for Nature the same loving devotion as
we find in Wordsworth. But Bowra rightly points out that his eye for Nature is for its
more charms and less obvious appeals and he takes richer and more luxurious pleasure
in those aspects of Nature that can present a dramatic and mysterious look. Whether his
descriptions are based on his personal experiences or on what he has read, he never fails
to give them a semblance of truth. The bergs around the skiff or the single sudden stride
of a tropical night are scenes that he could not have seen, but they look a lively and
realistic as the fire wild torrents actually seen by him rushing down the sides of the
hoary, majestic sky. He can evoke the richness of colour as well as the magical
associations of sound much better than any other poet. And he is equally successful both
in giving graphic descriptions and in achieving broad generalized effects. In his earlier
attitude towards Nature, he had a pantheistic view and also accepts it as a moral
teacher, but later he comes to believe that it is we who invest Nature with life and it
simply reflects our own moods. This later stage of his attitude towards Nature is the
stage when he says in ‘Dejection: An Ode.’
O Lady! We receive but what we give,
And in our life alone doth Nature live
Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud!
Meditative Note: Meditative thinking is the result of reflective and speculative
temper. It is a philosophic bent of mind. Coleridge was amply gifted with this quality.

5. This tendency of mind was present even in his early age which made him to do serious
reading. He was especially impressed by the German philosophers Kant and Schiller.
‘Dejection: An Ode’ is also written in a meditative mood in which he deplores the loss of
imaginative power because of the metaphysical strain in his thinking. The verses in ‘The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (which also hint at the theme of the poem) clearly reflects
his meditative mind when he says;
‘He pray th well, wh o loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.’
He prayth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small
For the dear God who loveth us
He made and loveth all
Humanitarianism: Humanitarianism means the love of humanity and a commitment
to improving the lives of others. We find humanitarianism in Coleridge’s poetry. Both he
and Wordsworth strongly supported the French Revolution in the hope that it would
free the masses from the tyranny of the dictators. But they were miserably disappointed
in their hope. When Coleridge discovered that the revolutionists were perverting or
violating the very principles they had stood for, he did not hesitate to denounce them in
his,Franch:An Ode’. His love of humanity is expressed in different poems and also in the
moral of ‘The Ancient Mariner’ when he says
‘He pray th well wh o loveth well
Both m an and bird and beast’
Music: Music is the art of arranging sounds, the art of arranging or making sound,
usually those of musical instruments or voices, in groups and patterns that create a
pleasing or stimulating effect. It can be presented in the written form indicating pitch,
duration, rhythm, and tone of notes to be played. ‘Coleridge is always a singer’, says
H.D. Traill. Court Hope also agrees that there is a tendency to approximate the art of
poetry to the art of music. Coleridge’s musical genius can best be seen in such poems as
‘The Ancient Mariner’, ‘Christable’, ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘Youth and Age’. ‘The Ancient
Mariner’ has woven cunning sound patterns with the help of internal rhyme or of clever
use of alliteration
The ice was here, the ice was there
The ice was all around
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled
Like noises in the swound!
The internal rhyme and the alliterative effect in the following lines is note worthy
‘T h e fair breeze blew, th e wh ite foam flew
The furrow followed free
We were the first that ever burst
I nto th at silent sea.’

6. The musical quality in ‘Christable’ and ‘Kubla Khan’ puts the reader into a hypnotic
spell.
Narrative skill: Narrative skill is the art of telling a story or giving an account of a
sequence of events in the order in which they happened. Coleridge is superb in the art of
storytelling. He knows how to create suspense or to evoke interest in the narrative. In
‘The Ancient Mariner’ he invests the Mariner with a hypnotic power in order to raise our
curiosity in his story. And he introduces his events very dramatically. By bringing the
specter –ship gradually closer to view, a hush of expectancy is created before death and
Life-in-Death are dramatically brought on the scene to determine the fate of the
Mariner. The dropping down of his two hundred sailor companions one by one after the
killing of Albatross and their souls going out making a whiz sound of the cross bow
produces a very dramatic effect. The wedding guest’s interruptions are used to high light
the climatic moments. All these devices give the poem an incomparable narrative
beauty.
Conclusion: The above are the characteristics that distinguish Coleridge from other
romantic poets and make him the most complete representative of the English
Romantic poetry of the early nineteenth century.