Coleridge as a Poet of Nature

Love for Nature is one of the most and conspicuous characteristics of the romantic poets. Like the other romantic poets, Coleridge is a keen lover of Nature and gives us many beautiful Nature pictures. When we go through his description of nature, we feel we are in the lap of nature. His The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan and Dejection an Ode' are packed with the apparent and colourful description of Nature.

In different poems we are acquainted with the different mood of Coleridge. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is full of beautiful images of Nature. No phrase of landscape or skyscape has been left untouched in the poem. We have the pictures of the sun shining at the outset, the mist, the fog surrounding the ship, the ice bergs floating hither and thither etc. are incomparable.

"The ice was here, The ice was there

The ice was all around,

It crack'd and growl'd and roar'd and howl'd

Like noises in a swound."

The seascapes are depicted with perfect and faultless brush of a painter. When the ship is proceeding through water it produces furrows behind it. This mere thing can escape the poet's observation. So he writes-

"The fair breeze blew the white foam flew

The furrow followe free

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea."

The various colours of Nature cannot but attract the attention of the poet. When old mariner is attracted by the colours of the water snakes we find that Coleridge is very much sensitive in this respect. He says:

"Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

They coiled and swam; and every track

was a flash of golden fire."

In Kubla Khan Coleridge has poured forth his whole sense of colour in depicting Nature. Nature is to him a great mystery in this poem. The scenery of this poem is supernatural to a great extent. But his delicate and subtle observation of Nature has made it quite natural. He describes the romantic chasm, it cannot but touch the heart of the readers.

"That deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a certain cover!"

The river which flows in circle or labyrinthine may is attractive and praiseworthy. In Kubla Khan Coleridge has depicted a very mysterious but discernable natural scene.

In 'Dejection: An Ode' Coleridge has gone against the pantheistic belief. The external nature is very much chaotic. The poet thinks after a few moments a thunder storm will occur. But it has got no effect on the poet's mind. Though Wordsworth says that Nature is-

"The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide

The guide of my heart and soul, of all my moral being"-

However in estimation we may say that Coleridge is a great poet of nature. His description of nature lends much weight to the view that Coleridge is a great romantic poet.