22 pages • 44-minute read
Frost at Midnight
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote “Frost at Midnight” in five stanzas of blank verse. Blank verse consists of unrhymed iambic pentameter (or lines of five metrical feet that follow an unstressed/stressed syllable pattern) and is one of the most common metrical forms in English. John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which is a prominent influence among Romantic writers, is written in blank verse. Romantic authors tended to prefer the form due to its relative freedom of expression compared to stricter historical forms that incorporated rhyme schemes. The poem’s focus on Coleridge’s internal life makes it a lyric work.
Though Coleridge’s collaborator William Wordsworth places naturalistic, spoken language among the tenets of Romantic poetry, Coleridge writes in a variety of registers. “Frost at Midnight” moves between heightened language and contemporary vernacular. Coleridge’s use of antiquated terms like “sleepest” (Line 45) or “so shalt thou see” (Line 59) lends the poem a formal, authoritative tone. This heightened language—and, in particular, Coleridge’s use of the antiquated, informal, second-person “thou”—peaks in the fourth stanza as he discusses his child’s natural education (See: Themes). The language in the fourth stanza, in this way, mirrors the formal, imperative tone of the Christian Bible. In lines like “which thy God / [u]tters, who from eternity doth teach” (Lines 61-62), Coleridge’s Biblical tone underlines his religious message.
Repetition
Repetition is one of the main ways that Coleridge as speaker draws attention to the poem’s many types of reflection. In poetry, repetition occurs when the speaker repeats similar words, phrases, or images. Coleridge relies on repetition for a variety of effects. His repetition of the phrase “[s]ea, hill, and wood” (Lines 10, 11) on either side of “[t]his populous village” (Line 11) situates that village in a vast, natural landscape. The repeated image of frost and its “secret ministry” (Lines 1, 73) frames the poem and reinforces the frost as an object of poetic contemplation. The speaker’s repetition of geological bodies in the fifth paragraph, such as “the crags / [o]f ancient mountain” (Lines 56-57) and “mountain crags” (Line 59), suggests that part of the child’s natural education entails repeated encounters with nature (See: Themes).
Coleridge uses repetition to place emphasis on certain movements or sensations. His description of the cottage as “calm indeed! so calm” (Line 8) immediately reinforces the place’s peaceful quietude. His attention to how the piece of ash in the fireplace “fluttered” (Line 15) and then “flutters” (Line 16) similarly demonstrates the intensity of that experience for him. The shift from past- to present-tense verbs in these successive lines also shows him playing with time, foreshadowing his later turn toward childhood.
Assonance and Consonance
While “Frost at Midnight” does not rely on rhymes, Coleridge makes use of repeated vowel and consonant sounds to connect or demonstrate his feelings. This use of assonance (repeated vowel sounds) and consonance (repeated consonant sounds) appears clearly in the first stanza.
When Coleridge contemplates the factors in his cottage that facilitate abstract reflection, he says it “suits / [a]bstruser musings” (Lines 5-6). The repeated long “u” sound in these words draws them out and suggests a slow pronunciation that replicates Coleridge’s calm. The sibilant “s” sounds that divide the vowels in these lines further demonstrate his hushed, restful environment. This environment changes as he realizes that the calm “disturbs / [a]nd vexes meditation with its strange / [a]nd extreme silentness” (Lines 8-10). While these lines still rely on sibilants to communicate the speaker’s quietude, they are interrupted with short “e” sounds and plosives like the hard “t” in “silentness” (Line 10). The plosives interrupt Coleridge’s otherwise calm state in the same way they interrupt the lines’ vowel sounds.
Coleridge uses these and similar techniques throughout the poem to represent various emotional states. The phrase “all seasons shall be sweet” (Line 66), for instance, relies on sibilants and “l” sounds, or liquids, to suggest an uninterrupted passage between seasons.
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