One of the main ideas behind the first wave of English Romanticism was that the Christian God demonstrates himself through his works. Typically, this belief manifests itself in the way Romantic poets thought about nature in childhood education. Prior to the Romantic period, the idea that childhood is an important part of a person’s development was not widely accepted. Poets like Coleridge and William Blake advocated for childhood as a time for education and exploration.

The importance of both education and exploration, combined with the Romantic emphasis on natural education, meant that Romantic writers encouraged children to encounter the natural world. The fourth stanza of “Frost at Midnight” lays out the kind of curricula for such a natural education. The child is expected to “wander like a breeze / [b]y lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags / [o]f ancient mountain” (Lines 55-57). Coleridge’s attention to geological objects such as lakes and mountains suggests that he believes it important to observe nature on a large scale. He reinforces this sense of scale by repeating “far other” (Lines 51-52) when thinking his child will “learn far other lore, / [a]nd in far other scenes” (Lines 51-52). Romantic writers often associate mountains in particular with the sublime (or a natural phenomenon both terrifying and beautiful, typically due to the thing’s scale).

In a religious context, the sublime helps one understand their small place in the universe. Coleridge’s poem, however, focuses more on how the landscape’s “lovely shapes” (Line 60) reflect the “eternal language, which thy God / [u]tters” (Lines 61-61). In this way, Coleridge as speaker instructs his child to read nature as if it were a holy text. If done appropriately, he believes that “all seasons”—of life and the year—“shall be sweet” (Line 66) to the child.