In my blog this week I want to discuss the religious underpinnings of Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight."From the very beginning we have a religious references where the frost, "performs its secret ministry." Although the Oxford English Dictionary could not offer much more than, "a house under the rule of a minister," the more I think about it the more it fits. The minister, of course, is God, and the house is this romanticized nature that Coleridge discusses, yearning for his child to experience it. Although it is not an outrageous idea to see God in everything, especially nature, it seems that is the overall goal of the author in composing this poem. In this case, the frost is something that serves God as natural "clergy."
In another sense, frost can be seen as the breathe of God and the voice of the Owl the voice. As the text states, "himself in all, and all things in himself." And taking this one step further, just as God breathes into and is embedded throughout nature, so too does he breathe into humans, and is therefore embedded in us. That is, at least, part of the message that Coleridge is trying to convey: that there is a Godliness in everything. As such, we must treat nature with a certain admiration and respect.
Really, this is a strong basis for environmentalists who want to preserve nature as is.
Actually, the OED entry is Huge. I think maybe you needed to scroll a bit. What about this one: ""he condition or fact of being an agent or instrument; one's conduct in such a role. Also: agency, instrumentality."? Anyway, it's not obvious ("of course") that the minister is God. On the contrary, the minister intercedes between people and God, so if the Frost is the minister, then it goes between the inmates of the cottage and God or between them and Nature (and Nature ministers to people on behalf of God?)
ReplyDelete... or, as you yourself rightly say, "the frost is something that serves God as natural "clergy."
ReplyDeleteThe penultimate paragraph makes good sense, yes! (But spell it "breath.")
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