“And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light,
Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve
Serenely brilliant (such should Wisdom be)
Shine opposite !”
The lines explaining him watching the clouds roll by is representing the natural awareness of sight. Coleridge appeared very in touch with nature and was able to describe and analyze what he was feeling and seeing at all times. Next the stanza rolls smoothly from explaining sight to smell. “How exquisite the scents Snatch’d from yon bean-field ! and the world so hush’d !” The sense of smell has become evident in the lines about the bean fields. He is now not only feeling and seeing his surroundings but enjoying the beautiful smell of them as well. The wording and structure of this set of lines also shows Wordsworth’s influence on Coleridge. They were good friends and Coleridge had read some of Wordsworth’s early works before the time of “The Aeolian Harp.” (Coleridge’s) Finally Coleridge shows his awareness to the final sense in this set. “The stilly murmur of the distant Sea Tells us of silence.” He tells his readers what he is hearing at the time. This being “The stilly murmur of the distant Sea.” He then adds that being able to hear such a distant sound “Tells us of silence.” This reveals that Coleridge feels that there is no such thing as “silence.” He solves the question of “can silence be heard?” Coleridge knows that the sound of silence is whatever natural presence is around him. So called “noise” is produced by humans and man made things. Silence can be heard when one is in a complete natural surrounding.
Coleridge also tries to show environmental reactions in nature throughout this poem. “Opposite personalities in this Eden at Clevedon predicate differential reactions to the environment. For Coleridge, the wild fantasies before his half-closed eyes, conjured by the wind and flowers, here animated nature, raise in his mind’s eye the question of nature’s part in the larger scheme. In a microcosmic way may not all nature be similar in function to the function provided by the Aeolian Harp (Radley 45)?” Coleridge is basically debating if nature can be compared to the Aeolian Harp in a larger sense.
“And what if all of animated nature
Be but organic Harps diversely fram’d
That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
At once the Soul of each, and God of all?”
What Coleridge is trying to state here is that the Aeolian Harp is an instrument that can only be played through nature. No human aid comes into play when creating music from this instrument. He is comparing in these lines how the Aeolian Harp is played to how nature functions. Nature survives and functions without any help from man. This same principle of no human aid is seen in how the Aeolian Harp is played. There for the Aeolian Harp is another mystery of nature in the eyes of Coleridge.
To add to this thought the title of the poem also portrays that same sense of mystery with nature. “Although the poem’s title indicates an instrument fit for gods only, the actual instrument in the poem is “that simplest Lute” placed lengthways in the casement (Radley 45).” A lute is played the same way as the Aeolian Harp is played. The two instruments are very similar and extremely simplistic. “Here again the simplicity of the actual instrument is analogous to the simplicity and reality inherent in the beanfield image. The lines of the poem move as smoothly here as does the breeze across the lute (Radley 45).” “The Aeolian Harp” is primarily “a beautifully modulated mental excursion, a musing on life, love and religion, with the Aeolian Harp as its central and multifunctional symbol. The harp, an instrument played on by the wind and a favourite plaything of Romantic writers, who saw it as a metaphor for poetic inspiration… (Ashton 76).” Coleridge is one of these romantic writers who saw the Harp as inspiration.
“The Aeolian Harp” had material added to it by Coleridge. This was said to happen as late as 1817. What was added was “the superb passage containing an apparently Pantisocratic view of the “One Life” which binds man to nature (Holmes 113).” This is exactly what Coleridge was trying to do with this passage. Later after he had thought about the poem for a while he figured out how to “bind man to nature.” This is ultimately what Coleridge was trying to explain the whole time. “In this poem Coleridge starts conversationally in the hushed air of a momentarily silenced earth. For example, “The Aeolian Harp” begins on a note of evening quiet, broken only by the murmur of a distant sea, and Coleridge’s voice. The “long sequacious notes” of a wind harp prompt him, with mounting fervor, to exclaim (Wayne 82):”
“O ! the one Life within us abroad,
Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,
A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,
Rhythm in all thought, and joyance every where.”
When he talks about “Rhythm in all thought, and joyance every where--,” he is understanding that religion brings structure into life. “After reaching this philosophical height, Coleridge’s fevor subsides to the ethical consideration that ‘it should have been impossible/ Not to love all things in a world so fill’d’ (Wayne 82).” He finally realizes that he had been over looking all the beautiful things in life.
“Methinks, it should have been impossible
Not to love all things in a world so fill’d;
Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air
Is Music slumbering on her instrument.”
Here he is questioning himself here as to why he didn’t give into religion earlier. He has now seen that religion brings life to a new dimension and if he had seen this before he would have thought it very hard to not love everything about religion because it fills the world with so much more. He now sees that religion brings joy and happiness to ones life as well as structure and morals.
The ending of the poem is what ties everything together. After the lines:
“If all of animated nature
Be but organic Harps diversely fram’d,
That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
AT once the Soul of each, and God of all.”
Coleridge’s wife’s “reproving” eye prompts him to stop his philosophical daydreaming and reassert his belief in Christian love. “With one qualification! At the end Coleridge guiltily repudiates his metaphysical conjectures (Wayne 82).” He calls these conjectures:
“shapings of the unregenerate mind;
Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break
On vain Philosophy’s aye-babbling spring”
What he means here is that he was wrong and now knows what he thought before to be untrue. Then he characterizes himself as “a sinful and most miserable man, wilder’d and dark.” He “naturally inclined to flights of fancy, to questioning and wandering in search of a rational explanation, finally gives way to Sara’s point of view, that is, to an acceptance of the necessity for faith in and feeling for God (Radley 46).” Coleridge obviously feels guilty about not seeing what Sara believed in before.
“For never guiltless may I speak of him,
The Incomprehensible! Save when with awe
I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels;
Who with his saving mercies healed me,
A sinful and most miserable man,
Wilder’d and dark, and gave me to possess
Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart-honour’d Maid!”
In these final lines Coleridge thanks Sara “in his heart for reaffirming in him the efficacy of faith in and feeling for God (Radley 46).” He first mentions that his “unregenerate mind” has finally been able to see what she had believed in all this time. He is trying to say that she had finally made him realize this. “Meek Daughter in the Family of Christ! Well hast thou said and holily disprais’d These shapings of the unregenerate mind.” He confesses though that he will never be able to speak of “him” with out feeling guilty because he has finally realized why he should praise “him” with this faith that he truly “inly” feels. “For never guiltless may I speak of him, The Incomprehensible! Save when with awe I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels.” The “him” that Coleridge is referring to is understood to represent God. He has discovered all these things that Christ had done for him like healed him when he was sick even though he was a “sinful and most miserable man.” The biggest reason of all that Coleridge has become one with his faith is because Christ helped him to posses the place where he lived, which was his Cot, peace, and above all Sara.
“The Aeolian Harp” is a poem of mystery and nature. Coleridge appears to be fascinated with the different relationships and senses that nature effects. Above all this poem was written to Sara telling her that he loves her and views her as a magical mystery. Just like what he believes about nature. Coleridge is utterly trying to compare the mysteries of nature to the mystery of love. Both nature and love are not created by humans. Both occur naturally and without any warning. This is the whole reason why Coleridge loves Sara so much, because she is a mystery to him just like nature. He is a philosopher so the things that he doesn’t understand about Sara excite him and make him want to understand. Overall, “The Aeolian Harp” can be called a love poem to Sara in relationship to the mystery of nature.
Works Cited
Ashton, Rosemary. The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford: 1988.
Harper, George McLean. “Coleridge’s Conversation Poems.” English Romantic Poets-Modern Essays in Criticism. 1960. Electronic Text Center. Seton Hall University Library, media, NJ. 23 April. 2003 <etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/resources/conv_poems_essay.html>.
Holmes, Richard. Coleridge Early Visions. Viking Penguin. New York: 1989.
Radley, Virginia L. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Twayne Publishers. Boston: 1966.
Shulz, Max F. The Poetic Voices of Coleridge. Wayne State University Press. Detroit: 1963.
Walsh, William. Coleridge The Work and the Relevance. Chatto & Windus. London: 1967.