Samuel Coleridge
...ng on how Nature’s beauty reflects the power of God. In lines 44 through 46, he imagines himself there with his friends enjoying nature’s true beauty. He is pensive here, thinking that Nature’s true beauty is only shown to those who look for it. In lines 65 through 70, he delves even deeper with his impressions that nature lifts the secret part of the soul. The part no stranger ever sees. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner An ancient mariner meets three fellows who are on their way to a wedding. He waylays one with the intention of recounting his story. He tells how his ship was sailing south when a storm draws the ship toward the South Pole. When the ship is surrounded by ice, an albatross comes through the snowy fog and is received with joy and hospitality, but is suddenly shot by the mariner. For this act of cruelty, a curse falls on the ship. The ship is driven around Cape horn, into the Pacific, and north toward the equator, where it encounters the Doldrums. The whole crew dies of thirst. The mariner is spared, because by the light of the moon, beholding God’s beautiful creatures in the Doldrums blesses them in his heart. The spell/curse is lifted and the ship is returned to England. However, the mariner, for penance, is condemned to travel from land to land and to teach by his example, love and reverence for all God’s creatures. Kubla Khan The poet, in 1797, appears to have fallen asleep while reading about the construction of the palace for Kubla Khan. The poem goes on to describe the enclosure or park with meadows, deer, rivers, and “caverns measureless to man”. I think this is a good example of Coleridge’s opium induced hallucinations. If he could have remembered how to finish it, I think it would have been more meaningful and made more sense. Christabel This poem is unfinished. Christabel, the daughter of Sir Leoline, while praying at night in the woods for her betrothed lover, finds a lady in distress. She brings the fair Geraldine to the castle, where she is kindly received. She claims to be the daughter of Lord Roland de Vaux, who had once been the friend of Sir Leoline before they were estranged by a quarrel. She also claims to have been forcibly abducted from her home. In reality, she is a malignant supernatural creature who has assumed the earthly form of Geraldine in order to do her evil works. Christabel, however, has seen her for who she really is, but is forced to keep silent as a result of a spell/curse. Sir Leoline sends...