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Frost at Midnight
Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” commits the Pathetic Fallacy
Debatable Claim
Human beings should learn how to appreciate Mother Nature and teach their generations on how to understand because nature positively impacts happiness.
Context
Pathetic fallacy is a form of personification whereby non-human objects are given human emotions. Poets employ pathetic fallacy in their works to bring non-living beings to life so that the nature of emotions can be conveyed and comprehended in a better way. This speech figure is an example of a metaphor because it gives an in-depth description and texture to a poem and makes it seem far richer. However, if overused, it might lose sense and might become a cliché pretty quickly.
Coleridge is the speaker in the poem while his son is the silent listener; the poem’s setting is late at night in their house. Coleridge is sitting beside his son’s cradle as he admires the frost falling on his house. He takes this opportunity to confess his undying love for nature and how this love dates back to when he was a boy. He would gaze out of the window while in class and admire the falling frost and daydream of leaving the city to his rural home. He tells his son that he is delighted that he will have more significant prospects to appreciate the natural world’s exquisiteness, and he will not be reared in the metropolis like he was. The speaker tells his audience how, given a chance, he would run back to his paternal home and embrace its environs. The poet tries to tell his audience about the importance of embracing all aspects of nature and embracing our roots: our rural families. People understand the poem as talking about the writer’s challenging childhood and how he missed his childhood delights.
Telling Details
The poet believes that nature can impact happiness in people’s lives. The poem commences while the speaker is sitting alone next to an open window on a cold night. He embraces nature’s serenity that allows him to hear the fire’s crackling and the hooting owls. “The Frost performs its secret ministry, unhelped by the wind. The owlet’s cry came loud and hark, again! loud as before.”(Stanza 1, line 1, 2). “Tis calm indeed so calm, that it disturbs and vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness.” (Stanza 1 line 9, 10). The poet recapping on how he admired nature when he was a boy shows how he appreciates nature. “Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, To watch that fluttering stranger.” (Stanza 2, line 2). He anticipates that his child will value nature’s beauty as he did and that nature will be sweet towards him. “Therefore, all seasons shall be sweet to thee.” (Stanza 4, line 1). The poet highly praises Mother Nature and appreciates her beauty, which he hopes that generations to come will understand and learn to enjoy nature in today’s modern world.
Impact
In his poem, Coleridge tries to depict the link between human beings and the natural world. In the poem, he mentions God and illustrates how He is a powerful being who commands nature and people. He persuades people to embrace God’s creative work in nature, even if it might seem unpleasant at times. God is the great universal teacher, and through him, people can heed the lucid resonance of nature’s perpetual words. “And mountain crags, so shalt thou see and hear, the lovely shapes and sounds intelligible, of that eternal language which thy God, utters from eternity doth teach.” (Stanza 4 lines, 15, 16, 17). He hopes that nature will be a great teacher to his son by molding and shaping his behaviors into becoming a compassionate person towards her. He hopes that people will come to love nature for various characteristics like falling raindrops frozen by frost and lynching from the ends of thatched-hut roofs. “Shall hang up in silent icicles, quietly shining to the quiet Moon.” (Stanza 5, line 9, 10). His pathetic fallacy is depicted in his praises for Mother Nature’s characteristics and how he admires her beauty. He mentions how nature sympathizes with him for being awake while others are deep in slumber. “Tis calm so calm indeed. (Stanza 1, line 9). “Methinks its motion in this hush nature, gives its dim sympathies with me who live…” (Stanza 2, line 3 and 4). In the last stanza, he indicates that “All seasons shall be sweet to thee,” to his son and that nature will direct its power on him and be his entity lesson. The use of pathetic fallacy makes the poem interesting and helps the reader understand what the speaker is talking about.
Conclusion
After being motivated by a fellow writer named Woodsworth, Coleridge wrote the poem, who wrote practically the same thing as him on nature’s sympathetic ways. Suppose people could have the same form of thinking towards nature as Coleridge, then the world would be in a better place. In today’s society, people have no respect for Mother Nature. It is why nature unleashes her wrath on people in terms of hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and so much more. People cut down trees, release toxic materials to the ocean and the air, and mine in places like mountains, dangerous places. Making money has turned people into savages who view nature as something else to manipulate but do not see the advantages of taking care of natural resources. Therefore, people should become open-minded as Coleridge and appreciate nature and the beauty it carries.
Work Cited
Coleridge, Samuel. “Frost at Midnight.” (1798).