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Fears in Solitude: Written in 1798, During the Alarm of an Invasion; To Which Are Added, France, an Ode; And Frost at Midnight
Excerpt from Fears in Solitude
While from the finging lark (that fings unfeen The min?relfy which folitude loves be?) And from the fun; Wheezy air.
While from the finging lark (that fings unfeen The min?relfy which folitude loves be?) And from the fun; Wheezy air.
30 pages, Paperback
Published August 24, 2018
About the author
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2,367 books913 followersSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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September 30, 2026I like how Coleridge is kinda a hater. basically Coleridge: “The world is ending and you all suck! Just my opinion though!”
September 28, 2026
"Remembering thee, O green and silent dell! // And grateful, that by nature's quietness // And solitary musings, all my heart // Is soften'd, and made worthy to indulge // Love, and the thoughts that yearn for human kind."
A poem not so dissimilar from 'Frost at Midnight' or 'Dejection: an ode', Coleridge's narrator finds himself peering on nature, and through the beauty, the silence, the holiness, the awe of serene or violent nature comes forth musings and philosophising on many feelings. In a beautifully still dell on a hill, our narrator is drawn to half-sleep and in it finds fear, and despair at the lack of true Christian faith (decentness and kindness) of society, the colonising dehumanising of slavery, and the general blasphemy of the horrors of society.
These are sections written with awesome vehemence - "O! My countrymen! // We have offended very grievously"; "Like a cloud that travels on, // Steam'd up from Cairo's swamps of pestilence, // Even so my countrymen! have we gone forth // And borne to distant tribes slavery and pangs, // And deadlier far, our vices, whose deep taint // With slow perdition murders the whole man, // His body and his soul!"; "Oh! blasphemous! the book of life is made // A superstitious instrument".
Yet the despair of it turns to potential hope, or at least temperance and beauty derived from nature; "May my fears // My filial fears, be vain!... Pass like the gust, that roared and died away // In the distant tree"; and so the poem dies away as our protagonist returns home from solitude, to his wife and child, wearied by his thoughts and musings but ultimately enriched, and it is quite beautiful. The dying away of cynicism and despair which can overwhelm in nature (though is necessary and beautiful) happens when one joins their loved ones, and accepts companionship. It's a very nice poem.
A poem not so dissimilar from 'Frost at Midnight' or 'Dejection: an ode', Coleridge's narrator finds himself peering on nature, and through the beauty, the silence, the holiness, the awe of serene or violent nature comes forth musings and philosophising on many feelings. In a beautifully still dell on a hill, our narrator is drawn to half-sleep and in it finds fear, and despair at the lack of true Christian faith (decentness and kindness) of society, the colonising dehumanising of slavery, and the general blasphemy of the horrors of society.
These are sections written with awesome vehemence - "O! My countrymen! // We have offended very grievously"; "Like a cloud that travels on, // Steam'd up from Cairo's swamps of pestilence, // Even so my countrymen! have we gone forth // And borne to distant tribes slavery and pangs, // And deadlier far, our vices, whose deep taint // With slow perdition murders the whole man, // His body and his soul!"; "Oh! blasphemous! the book of life is made // A superstitious instrument".
Yet the despair of it turns to potential hope, or at least temperance and beauty derived from nature; "May my fears // My filial fears, be vain!... Pass like the gust, that roared and died away // In the distant tree"; and so the poem dies away as our protagonist returns home from solitude, to his wife and child, wearied by his thoughts and musings but ultimately enriched, and it is quite beautiful. The dying away of cynicism and despair which can overwhelm in nature (though is necessary and beautiful) happens when one joins their loved ones, and accepts companionship. It's a very nice poem.
June 3, 2023
Fears in Solitude
Anti-military poem!
Lines 22-24,44; 103-107; 198-210. Wow!
.. and ..
(Stanza Four)
“Merchant and lawyer, senator and priest,
The rich, the poor, the old man and the young ;
All, all make up one scheme of perjury,
That faith doth reel ; the very name of God..”
France: An Ode
Opens with: “Ye Clouds! That far above me float and pause …”
Frost at Midnight
Opens with:
“The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
..”
Inaudible as dreams! The thin blue flame! (line 13)
With his wife at his side (lines 44-49)
Anti-military poem!
Lines 22-24,44; 103-107; 198-210. Wow!
.. and ..
(Stanza Four)
“Merchant and lawyer, senator and priest,
The rich, the poor, the old man and the young ;
All, all make up one scheme of perjury,
That faith doth reel ; the very name of God..”
France: An Ode
Opens with: “Ye Clouds! That far above me float and pause …”
Frost at Midnight
Opens with:
“The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
..”
Inaudible as dreams! The thin blue flame! (line 13)
With his wife at his side (lines 44-49)
October 18, 2020
Another example of the biting power that the poet-prophet has to demand justice and enact national change. Amos 5 is, to my mind, the subtext of all these poems.
October 16, 2023
ROMANTICISM.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews