Frost at Midnight Themes

In "Frost at Midnight," Coleridge is concerned with one specific family member: his infant son, Hartley Coleridge. Everyone else is asleep in the cottage, and Hartley is the only person in the room...

Smile, folks. Happiness is a huge part of Coleridge's poem. For him, it needs to have a spiritual solution. Genuine joy comes with encountering God in Nature. It's not something that comes from pla...

Sure, it sounds bad, but isolation isn't really a bad thing in "Frost at Midnight." A better term might be "solitude." By being alone at night (except for his sleeping baby) Coleridge is able to at...

In "Frost at Midnight," Coleridge views Nature as a source of wisdom for humanity. What he wasn't able to find in his boring classroom, he thinks his son will be able to find in Nature. Humans have...

Coleridge is deeply religious, but—thanks to his opium addiction and his other difficulties (like his unhappy marriage)—he thinks he hasn't fully lived up to his spiritual ideals. (Opium addict...