Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement - Assignment Example

Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement” The Romantic era, roughly considered to have taken place between the years 1820-1910, was characterized by a return to nature as artists and poets began to celebrate the individual, emotional expression and appreciation of beauty and imagination. In this new freedom, writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge felt able to explore new methods and forms of expression in their work, such as Coleridge’s so-called conversation poems which broke the traditional boundaries of poetry into a more colloquial realm. This type of poetry is characterized by a friendly, easy manner that seems at once spontaneous and also personal. An example of this type of poetry can be found in Coleridge’s poem entitled “Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement,” written in late 1795 or early 1796. Drawing from personal experience, Coleridge focuses this small soliloquy upon the appreciation of his natural surroundings as well as the individual thoughts he experiences as he reflects upon them, causing this poem to fit well within the Romantic tradition. The poem opens with its longest stanza focused on the description of the place of retirement mentioned in the title. The language of flowers was already well-established among the general Victorian community of which Coleridge was a part and he employs it liberally in this opening section to help express the emotions tied to this setting. “History relates that during the reign of Queen Victoria … the language of flowers was as important to people as being ‘well dressed’” (“History and Language of Flowers”, 2006). Speaking from the first person perspective, and placing a conversational tone in his writing by immediately mentioning “our pretty Cot” (1) as if the listener were a part of Coleridge’s contemporary circle of friends, he tells us “our tallest Rose / Peep’d at the chamber-window” (1-2). These two lines establish first that Coleridge is speaking to someone, in particular the reader, and second that he is not alone in his solitude, but instead lives with someone else, hence the use of the word “our”. In addition, his use of the general flower rose, rather than denoting any special type or color, imbues this chamber with the aspects that all roses carried, the emotions of happiness, beauty, desire, immortality and passionate love. Myrtles blossom in the open air outdoors, reinforcing these emotions with the emphasis on love and joy (“History and Language of Flowers”, 2006), “and across the porch / Thick Jasmins twined” (5-6). Like the rose, Jasmine had a different meaning depending upon the type and color of the flower, but of the four varieties with definite meanings, all are positive to a setting of absolute domestic tranquility. The meanings associated with this plant include attachment, sensuality, modesty, grace, elegance and amiability (“History and Language of Flowers”, 2006). Also, speaking in Victorian terms where “green and woody” (7) places, as Coleridge describes the general area around the cottage, were seen as places capable of improving a person’s health and reducing overall discontent. With this understanding, which would have been almost instinctual in the minds of Victorian readers, Coleridge sets up, in his first seven lines, the very ideal of a healthy, loving, peaceful home within the language of the flowers themselves. However, this setting is reinforced with a great deal of additional imagery that all works to establish a peaceful setting. The idea that the cottage is also quite secluded from the interfering hustle of man is first suggested by the distant sound of the sea, which can be heard “At silent noon, and eve, and early morn” (3). These specific time periods are selected because they represent those time periods most filled with the sounds of everyday business within any given town or hamlet as people go about conducting their regular activities. In order for this distant sound to be heard, either there must be no people, or the sound of the waves in a ‘silent noon’ must be very loud indeed to counteract the normal sounds of human activity throughout the average day, in which case the waves would be described in other terms than the “faint murmur” (4) . In addition, this sound is interrupted once in a while by the song of the “viewless skylark” (19), who is sometimes seen “Gleaming on sunny wings” (21), equated in Victorian minds with the incomprehensible since the song of the bird is so beautiful as to avoid description and the sight of the bird is rarely caught. By combining these two ideas, the lulling sound of the distant ocean with the thrilling song of the skylark, Coleridge is able to describe “a Blessed Place” (17). This peaceful, secluded imagery is continued into the remainder of the poem, but becomes interrupted with the troubles of man first naturally, then physically and finally mentally. The first hint of this occurs in line 27, as he describes how he climbs “steep up the stony Mount / … with perilous toil” (27-28). The mountain is also described as “bare” and “bleak” (30) before the “goodly scene” (29) below is described to relieve us of our sudden anxiety as it becomes “speckled thin with sheep” (30). Like the balanced positive/negative aspect of the sheep suggesting peaceful pastoral scenes yet the use of the descriptive “thinly” to denote the possible hardships of this life, the positive is balanced by the negative throughout this second stanza as nature physically gives way to construction. The “sunny fields” are shadowed by the “grey clouds” (31). The river is first overcome with rocks and then “winding bright and full, with naked banks” (33) as it leads the narrator’s eye to view the “seats, and hamlets, and faint city-spire” (35) as he progresses away from nature and into the hustle and bustle of the world of mankind. Using iambic verse through these lines, with the sing-song stressed/unstressed syllables, Coleridge is able to develop a natural movement along the lines, entangling the reader in the world of his description. From this physical position on the mountain, he is able to see the ocean, nature again reasserting itself in his vision, yet still suggesting the presence of man in Coleridge’s inclusion of the “white sails” (36) of ships before detail is lost in the “Dim coasts, and cloud-like hills, and shoreless Ocean” (37). Using this vivid imagery, Coleridge is able to capture the mind’s eye and take it with him up the side of the mountain, pointing out along the way how, from this vantage point, “the whole World / Seem’d in its vast circumference” (39-40) and paving the way for these disruptions of the peace to enter the mental realm. In keeping with his conversational tone, Coleridge slips into the third stanza directly addressing the peaceful locations he’s mentioned thus far as he explains why he found it necessary to leave. “I was constrain’d to quit you. Was it right / That I should dream away the entrusted hours / On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart / with feelings all too delicate for use?” (43-44). In this one question, Coleridge indicates this heavenly bliss he’s experienced has been appreciated, but, in light of the fact that there are many men unable to enjoy this sort of peace, it is not appropriate for him to waste the hours away with thoughts that do nothing to improve their condition. This is made clear by his direct allusion in line 49, “Sweet is the tear that from some Howard’s eye / Drops on the cheek of one he lifts from earth” (49-50), to John Howard, a well-known prison reformer who was commemorated in the ‘Howard League for Penal Reform’ organization. The personal call to action that become the ultimate result of his reflections upon his surroundings is met in the third stanza with the resolution to “go, and join head, heart, and hand, / Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fight / Of Science, Freedom, and the Truth in Christ” (60-63). Yet Coleridge brings the poem around full circle in the fourth stanza, promising to return to his peaceful secluded valley, at least in spirit form as he rests from his worldly toils, again invoking the magic of the language of flowers to pacify his troubled mind. His last lines, praying to God that he might do so, relates the small cottage to the kingdom of Heaven, in the simple phrase “Let thy Kingdom come!” (71), hoping that “all had such” to dream of. References Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. (1875). “Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement..” in Samuel Taylor Coleridge – The Major Works. H.J. Jackson (Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2000). “The History and Language of Flowers.” (2000). Victorian Bazaar. Douglasville, PA. Retrieved November 13, 2006 from < http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html> Read More