As I delved into Coleridge’s Frost at Midnight, I kept catching myself searching for what he meant by the frost performing its secret ministry (Lyrical Ballads pg. 233 ll. 1). The author starts the poem by informing the reader that he is in “Solitude, which suits Abstruser musings…”(Lyrical Ballads pg. 233 ll. 5). Abstruse, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means “Remote from apprehension or conception; difficult, recondite”(OED online). The Naturalist poet first places himself in a physical place and psychological state to most effectively converse with Nature and ponder the ambiguities of humanity.
In order to understand the meaning of Nature’s ministry, we should start by examining Coleridge’s references to ministers. There are two different teachers or ministers the author refers to in this poem. The first is the preceptor in line forty-two. This teacher merely forced Coleridge to pretend that he was studying during class in grammar school. The preceptor serves to awaken the poet from his youthful dreams and pleasures referred to in lines thirty-three through thirty-nine. This teacher reminds me of a catholic school nun that is mentioned in the song “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie. The lyrics read, “…I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black, I held my tongue as she told me son, ‘fear is the heart of love’, so I never went back”(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqtuFemMOE). In these works, the human teachers serve to push their own beliefs upon those they teach instead of letting Nature and experience speak for itself.
After writing of his past, the author declares that it will be different for his infant. Instead of being enclosed in the city to see only the sky and stars, the child will wonder among the lakes, beaches, and mountains. In these more remote places, his progeny will be able to converse with Nature more effectively and hear “that eternal language, which thy God utters”(Lyrical Ballads 235 ll. 65-66). God, according to Coleridge, is the perfect minister who puts himself in all things and all things in himself (Lyrical Ballads pg 235 ll. 67-68). I thought this idea was very interesting, and in some ways very controversial for the author’s time. By equating God to Nature, Nature is also necessarily God. The secret ministry of Nature is its constant passive conversation with man. This portion of the poem reminded me of a bible verse found in the book of Psalms, which reads, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth…”( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+19&version=NIV). It as if the all of Nature is participating in furthering the teleological argument.
The last part I would like to discuss in this poem is line eighty-one, which contains a double meaning regarding Nature’s argument. Icicles, “Have capp’d their sharp keen points with pendulous drops”(Lyrical Ballads pg. 235 ll. 81). One could read this line as the beautiful rhythmic drips of water falling off an icicle, or the precision with which Nature seals its constant argument for its own perfection.
No comments:
Post a Comment