supernaturalism in S.T. Coleridge

Add caption

By prof.Abdelhamid Fouda 

Coleridge is one of the great poets of Romantic Movement in English Literature. His thoughts are philosophical. But his style is simple and clear. Supernaturalism is his special field. He writes about supernatural elements and events and describes what is unseen and beyond nature. But he describes them in such a way that they appear natural and life like.

Supernaturalism makes S.T. Coleridge distinct in the field of world literature

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the fabulous poets of Romantic Movement in English literature. His thoughts are philosophical. But his style is simple and clear. Supernaturalism is his special field. He writes about supernatural elements and events and describes what is unseen and beyond nature. But he describes them in such a way that they appear nature and life like. He differs from his contemporaries, Lewis, Mrs. Radcliff and poet, who create horror by showing reshaped and horrible paces. He on the other hand, creates horror by creating horrible atmosphere. He is a great artist.

It is true that what is best in Coleridge’s poetry is very small in amount but that little is of great value. He seems to have more interest in describing supernatural element. But his greatness lies in the fact that he describes them in such a why that looks to be natural and life like.

What is the supernatural? Though the ages phenomena which could not be explained by the know laws of nature have been attributed to supernatural powers and influences. If these happenings led to the benevolent powers; if or the contrary they resulted in suffering and misery, they were ascribed to evil spirits literature has continuously been enriched by stories in which the supernatural plays an important part. The desire of hearing about the miraculous is as strong in the civilized man as it was in his primitive ancestors, as it is in the native child. The folklores of all ages and countries abound in tales of magic, fairies, spirits ghosts and demons however be explained by the laws of science and that seem to involve gods or music.

The interest in the supernatural was an important aspect of the romantic spirit that appeared in the eighteenth century. The fashionable cult of the strangeness turned inevitably to this alluring world of the unknown and exploited it with a reckless carelessness. To Coleridge the supernatural appealed with a special power.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, ‘kubla khan’ and “Christable” are the precious assets of the English literature for supernatural elements. These are the poems that made him immortal in the world of literature.

“The Rime of The Ancient Mariner” is a poem in the romantic tradition with high imagination and supernatural elements. But at the same time Coleridge has put a moral lesson for his readers in the poem. He shows that any crime, big or small can not go unpunished. Again, with true love the suffering soul may be purified and regenerated.

As a poet of the romantic tradition, Coleridge has put the supernatural in his poem “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner”, He put it perhaps to satisfy the taste of ordinary people of his day, we find every details of a sea voyage, the condition, the climate of the sea and the mariners on board. But at the same time there are so much incidents and scenes in the poem that can not be believed with reason. Coleridge has created a willing suspension of disbelief here.

The Ancient Mariner is a tale of a curse which the narrator, the Mariner himself, brings upon himself and his companions by killing an Albatross without reason. Coleridge’s power of handling the supernatural is like the pure music of his verse. The moral of the poem is one of all-embracing love. This poem is full of moral teachings for human beings. Humphry House expresses his agreement with three great critics, Dr. Tillyard, Dr. Bowra, and Robert Penn Warren, that the poem has a very serious moral and spiritual effect on human life. The moral of the ancient Mariner’s story is that one should love all God’s creatures.

Coleridge is regarded as the greatest poet of the supernatural in English literature and The Ancient Mariner is regarded as a masterpiece of supernatural poetry. His supernatural is controlled by thought and study. Cazamian says, ”The very center of Coleridge art lies in his faculty of evoking the mystery of things, and making it actual, widespread, and obsessing. Even better than Wordsworth, he knows how to handle that species of the supernatural whose essence (spirit) is entirely psychological. The supernatural element in The Ancient Mariner is a hallucination, the outcome of remorse; by the most sober of method.” His skill in dealing with the supernatural in this poem is two-fold: first, he has fully achieved his aim of making the supernatural appear to be natural; and, second, he has employed suggestive, psychological, and refined (sophisticated) methods of producing the feelings of mystery and horror in the poem, not crude and sensational like that of the writers before him, i.e. Horace, Walpole, Mrs. Radcliffe, and Monk Lewis. The greatness of The Ancient Mariner lies chiefly in the technique by which the supernatural has been made believable and convincing. There are, no doubt, a number of impossible, incredible, and fantastic situation in the poem, such as: the mesmeric (magnetic) power in the mariner’s gaze, the sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship, the spectre woman and her mate, the coming back to life of the dead crew, the seraph-band making signals to the land, the sudden sinking of the ship, and the polar spirit commenting on or influencing the course of events. But these supernatural phenomena are so skillfully blended with the perfectly believable and natural phenomena that the whole looks real. The sun shinning brightly at the outset, the mist and snow, the freezing cold of the polar regions, the floating ice bergs floating in the water, the torrid (very hot) fierceness of stagnant water, the slimy things crawling on the sea, the moon going up the sky, the roaring wind, the rainfall—such are the natural phenomena in the poem. The realistic effect is enhanced by a description of the state of mind of the ancient mariner; that is how he tried to pray but he could not, how lonely he felt on a wide, wide sea, how he wanted to die but in vain (useless), how he suffered mental and spiritual anguish (torture). This psychological study of the mariner adds to the realistic effect because we are made to feel that any man would suffer in the same way under similar circumstances.. Again, the details of the ship’s voyage have such a diary-like air that we accept them as a faithful recording of facts. There is, too, the logic of cause and effect in the poem. The punishment and torture have a convincing cause behind them.

The realistic effect achieved by Coleridge in The Ancient Mariner is one his great achievements which make the poem not only convincing and exciting but also in some sense a criticism of life. There are a large number of situations and episodes in The Ancient Mariner, which fill us either with a sense of mystery or a feeling of horror or with both. The first situation that strikes terror in the heart of the Mariner (and also the reader) is the appearance of the skeleton-ship. When this skeleton-ship is sighted in the distance, the sailors feel happy to think that they will now get water to quench their burning thirst. But in a few moment they discover the reality of this ship. The description of the ship with its “ribs” and its “gossamere-like sails” fill us with terror. It is a strange mystery that this ship should sail on the sea without wind and without a tide, while the Mariner’s ship stands still “like a painted shop upon a painted ocean”. Obviously it is a supernatural force, which drives the ship, and the crew also consists of supernatural characters. The feeling of terror is heightened when a reference is made to the crew of this ship. The crew consists of Death and Life-in-Death. But Coleridge creates the sense of horror in this poem not by describing a direct and crude description but by employing suggestive and psychological methods. For instance, he does not describe the physical features of the spectre woman and her death mate or other external phenomena at length, but he simply portrays the effect of those external things on the mariner’s mind. The appearance of Life-in-Death is described in the following three lines: Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was as white as leprosy. (Lines 190-92) These three lines are followed by these two: The night-mare Life-in-Death was she, Who thicks man’s blood with cold. (lines 193-94) Coleridge, after giving us only three lines of description, conveys the horror by saying that the sight of her would have the effect of freezing a man’s blood. In other words, he leaves it to us to imagine for ourselves the horrible appearance of Life-in-Death that personifies the unspeakable torture of a man who cannot die.

Coleridge merely offers a few suggestions to be developed by the reader himself. The effect of the skeleton-ship with Death and Life-in-Death on board again conveyed to as by the following two lines:

“Fear at my heart, as at a cup,

My life-blood seemed to sip!”

That is, instead of giving us a detailed description of the whole horrible sight, Coleridge refers to the effect of that horrible sight upon the mind of the Mariner and says that fear sipped his life-blood. Another situation that produces horror in the poem is the death of the two hundred sailors who dropped down one by one, and each of them looked at the ancient Mariner with a curse in his eyes:

“One after one, by the star-dogged Moon,

Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,

And cursed me with his eye.”

 The ancient Mariner heard a whiz-like sound every time a soul left its body:

“The souls did from their bodies fly,—

They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,

Like the whiz of my cross-bow!”

What a horrible experience it must have been for the ancient Mariner and how horrible for the reader too. The agony and spiritual torture of the lonely ancient Mariner on a wide wide sea when he could not pray or die are, perhaps, the most terrifying and horrifying elements in the poem. The following stanzas convey some of the horror of the Mariner’s state:

“I looked upon the rotting sea,

And drew my eyes away;

I looked upon the rooting deck,

And there the dead men lay.

I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;

But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came, and made

My heart as dry as dust.”

What makes the situation still more horrifying is that the curse in dead men’s eyes had never passed away: “The look with which they looked on me Had never passed away.” “Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.” Here, again, no ugly details are provided. We are to imagine the horror of the situation ourselves. We shudder (tremble) with fear to think of the Mariner who is left alone after seeing “four times fifty living men” dropping down one by one, “with heavy thump, a lifeless lump.” It is at this stage that the Weeding-Guest begins to experience a sensation of fear because he thinks that the Marines himself must also have dropped down dead and that it is the Mariner’s ghost who is now speaking to him and so he says:

‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner!

I fear thy skinny hand!

..................................

I fear thee and thy glittering eye,

And thy skinny hand, so brown.’

 Next, the groaning, stirring, and coming back to life of the dead crew must have been a terrifying experience for the ancient mariner till he discovered that the bodies were inspired not by their original souls but by a troop of angelic spirit. We are certainly terrified when we read:

“The dead men gave groan,

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,

Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;”

“They raised their limbs like lifeless tools

We were a ghastly crew.”

In real life, if a dead man happens to open his eyes (because he has not really died), all the mourners get terribly frightened and run away helter-skelter. In this case two hundred dead men got up on their feet and started working at the oars.

The horror of the situation can well be imagined. Again, towards the close of the poem, the poet wishes to tell us how horrifying the Mariner’s face appeared after he had undergone his strange adventures. The poet does not describe the features the face; he simply describes the effect of the face upon the Pilot’s mind:

“I moved my lips—the Pilot shrieked

And fell down in a fit;”

In other words, the Mariner’s face was ghastly like the face of a dead man, and it struck so much terror in the Pilot’s heart that the Pilot fainted. The Pilot must have thought that the Mariner was not a human being but some horrible spectre. The effect on the Pilot’s boy was that he went crazy with fear:

“I took the oars: the Pilot’s boy,

Who now doth crazy go,

Laughed loud and long, and all the while

His eyes went to and fro.”

As for the Hermit, he too was terrified but, being a holy man, he sought courage from God:

“The holy Hermit raised his eyes,

And prayed where he did sit.”

 The Hermit is, indeed, badly shaken and, on stepping forth from the boat, could scarcely stand because of fear:

“The Hermit stepped forth from the boat,

And scarcely he could stand.”

 In a nervous state of mind, the Hermit asks the Mariner to tell him immediately what manner of man he is. In short, the horror of the Mariner’s face is conveyed to us through the reactions of the Pilot, the Pilot’s boy, and the Hermit. Coleridge’s treatment of the supernatural is quite different from that of such writers as Horace, Walpole, Mrs. Radcliffe, and Monk Lewis. The difference between Coleridge and the others is the difference between the maker of horror and the maker of horrors. Coleridge creates the atmosphere of mystery and fear by indefiniteness and by subtle suggestion, while the others employ crude description and they pile horrors in order to send a cold shiver down the reader’s spine and to curdle the reader’s blood. The theme of this poem is crime, punishment and reconciliation. In this poem the Mariner did not act but was only acted upon and he was the recipient rather than the doer. He is the recipient of the odd and of the fate. There is a tragic flaw for the Mariner as the killing of the bird starts his suffering. The suffering endured by the Mariner is due to killing the bird that represents imagination, and by killing the bird the Mariner kills the imagination and the loss of the imagination is a kind of death. The Mariner suffers mentally and spiritually, and he is isolated. Then in his suffering, he sees water snakes and blesses them, which eventually releases his suffering.

The ancient mariner is the story of a real life sea voyage pervaded by a supernatural atmosphere. There is an strangeness in the hypnotic eyes of the mariner, the spectral ship with death and nightmare life in death as its crew dicing or the deck, the winds that sound but never come near, the polar spirits entering the corpses of the mariners and activating them, and the mariners ship sinking mysteriously with a thundering sound coming from under the water. Terror is produced by Coleridge’s ability to provide visual descriptions of striking vividness. The story with its supernatural accounts is obviously incredible, but with in this frame work there is the human reality.

“God save thee, ancient mariner

From the fiends, that plague you thus!”

Here Coleridge vividly presents the supernatural issues by dwelling upon the hideous relations on the face of the mariner. This is the indirect way of treatment of the supernatural, Coleridge was perhaps aware of the fact that such supernatural scenes would not be accepted or believed by his readers. Hence he has dealt with the reactions of the persons that we experience.

‘And some is dreams assured were

Of the spirit that plagued us so

Nine fathom deep he had followed us

From the land of mist and snow.’

Then comes the appearance from nowhere of the skeleton ship with gossamer-like sails, carrying death and life in death engaged in a gambling contest. This ship sails on the sea without wind or tide and it disappears as suddenly as it had appeared. The stanza where this incident is described as horrifying in their effect upon us and sends a cold shiver down our spine. The manner of the death of all the sailors except the ancient mariner is supernatural. There is some thing supernatural about the way in which the dead body of the albatross automatically falls down from the ancient mariner’s neck into the sea. The moving of the ship upon the sea without a wind is supernatural.

‘A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!

 And still it neared and neared;

Asif it dodged a water-sprite,

If plunged and tacked and veered.’

In these lines the ancient mariner describes the gradual approach of the skeleton ship. He and his companions had passed a long and weary time, in thirst and loneliness. One day, looking towards the western sky, where the sun as setting, the ancient mariner saw a strange sight. At first the thing appeared like a den in the moving piece of mist; it was still to indistinct to be clearly distinguished.

Then as it came still nearer, the mariner found it had a definite shape-it was a ship, it was moving so fast that it appeared to be escaping from the pursuit of a water spirit. Besides, its course was very unsteady. The strange behavior of the ship made the ancient mariner think that the ship was trying to escape from a water spirit that was pursuing it to take revenge.

The poet skillfully suggests the supernatural nature of the ship. The ship of the ancient mariner was becalmed for there was no wind and tide, but in the same sea there was another ship which was moving fast and very fast. How could the second ship move thus, without wind or tide, unless there was some thing supernatural about it.

“Kubla khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the most mysterious and ambiguous piece of literature ever written. Allegedly written after a laudanum induced dream, the author claims to have been planning a two hundred to three hundred line poem before he got interrupted by a man. This is partly true, as the language seems often in genial Christianity.

Coleridge’s philosophy in life was very romantic and so nearly all of his poems exemplify the romantic idea, especially “Kubla Khan”. This romantic poem uses brilliant imagery and metaphors to contrast the ideals of romantic paganism with often in genial Christianity. The vision of paganism is the first idea introduced in the poem. The supernatural reference to “Alph” or Alpheus as it is historically known.

“The sacred river ran

Though caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea”

The river Alph is directly related to the Greek god Alpheus, who the river god. According to Greek mythology, a pagan belief, the god Alpheus had fallen in love with Arethusa the daughter of Nereus and a Hesperides. This again adds to the supernatural quality of the poem.

Suggestiveness is the basic feature of Coleridge’s supernaturalism. It is true that a very vivid and graphic description of the surrounding of the pleasure-dome is given in the poem but the supernatural element is suggestive. Coleridge is a superb artist for intermingling the natural and supernatural so that the probable and the improbable interfuse. Here are lines which for sheer suggestiveness and mystery are perhaps unsurpassed.

“A savage place: as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waiting moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover”

A complete story of love’s tragedy is hidden in these three lines. And then the following two lines:

“And mid this tumult kubla heard from for

Ancestral voices prophesying war!”

The poet in these lines, describes the visionary landscape f the palace of kubla khan. Kubla khan, the mighty emperor ordered to build a pleasure dome. The poet says that the place is a wild one which may be awe-inspiring. Again this is holy and magic land. The influence of magic seems to be there. This place says Coleridge is visited repeatedly by a woman to find out her lover who is a demon. Under the fading light of the waning moon she looks for her lover and wails. These lines are full of dream elements that run through the whole poem. Coleridge’s supernaturalism is at its height as he describes a mysterious and terrible landscape.

In lines, 37-46, Coleridge here presents a visionary scene where a maiden is playing her musical instrument and singing. The poet says in these lines, describes the visionary landscape of the palace of kubla khan. The poet says that once he saw in a vision or dream that an Abyssinian girl was playing on a musical instrument called dulcimer. The maid was also singing a wonderful song that charmed the poet. If he could remember that music he could build a pleasure-dome in the air, with his inspired poetry. The poem here gets a supernatural touch with the maid and her musical instrument. The maid is Abyssinian and her instrument is a dulcimer which is from far away place and time.

‘For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of paradise.’

The poem here gets a supernatural touch with boney dew and milk of paradise. These are the foods of magicians and by taking them he could get the supernatural quality himself.

However Coleridge never forgets that his real purpose was to make the supernatural natural and to bring about the “willing suspension of disbelief which constitutes poetics faith.” Whether Kubla Khan is seen as a poem about poetic creativity or about life, it is a convincing work.

Coleridge made the supernatural as the region and haunt of his genius and shows the way to its most artistic use. There are two ways of treating the supernatural, one external and decorative and the other suggestive and psychological. In the first the supernatural horrors may be multiplied through a number of direct and vivid descriptions, in the second they may be subtly suggested and intensified through the depiction of their effect on the human victim. Coleridge knew how to handle that type of the supernatural whose essence is entirely psychological. He creates an atmosphere of mystery and horror by using supernatural elements. The influence of the supernatural has been brought to bear not only on human nature but or phenomenal nature also. Coleridge makes the natural seem supernatural by attributing to nature something of the special power and proficiency of the supernatural. Coleridge is best known for his haunting ballad, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the dream like Kubla Khan and the unfinished Christabel. He used supernatural elements vastly in his three best known poems and supernaturalism gives him a new identity