Frost at Midnight

Coleridge positions his child halfway between himself and the “inmates of [his] cottage, all at rest” (Line 4). Though the child is next to him and is his sole human companion in the room, the child “slumbers peacefully” (Line 7). Coleridge suggests that children exist in a liminal, or in-between, state of potentiality. This unrealized potential is most obvious in Coleridge’s reminiscence of his “sister more beloved, / [his] play-mate when [they] were both clothed alike” (Lines 43-44). During the late 18th century, adults dressed both male and female children in dresses or gowns. “Breeching,” the occasion of a boy’s first time wearing breeches or trousers, often would not occur until between two and eight years of age. Coleridge’s statement that he and his sister “both were clothed alike” (Line 44) is a reference to life before breeching, before he and his sister likely underwent very different forms of education and development.

Coleridge expands on this yet-unrealized potential in children when he considers his own “sweet birth-place” (Line 29) and how it affected him. He sees his son’s opportunity to “learn far other lore, / [a]nd in far other scenes” (Lines 51-52) as a chance to actualize his child’s potential. This comparison between Coleridge’s experienced childhood “[i]n the great city” (Line 53) and his son’s potential childhood among nature also suggests that the “cradled infant” (Line 7) represents Coleridge’s own lost potential.