M.A English (Literature and Linguistic)

1. SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN COLERIDGE POETRY
The term supernatural is used for events and beings which are above to the order of
nature and which are out or beyond the ordinary laws of cause and effect in the
human world. The primitive and the medieval people were the strong believers of
the supernatural. They looked at the phenomena of nature with awe and wonder.
The catholic legends and the mystic experiences of Christian saints sought to present
the supernatural as a holy truth. The literature of the middle ages. The romances and
the ballads freely exploited the supernatural or the marvelous.
Ghosts, witches, demons, ogres appear quite frequently in the medieval literature.
Nevertheless the supernatural in the medieval is crude hair rising, sensational and
palpable. With the renaissance the supernatural is presented I all allegorical and
symbolic cover. The efforts are made to make it more natural and convincing. Yet
much is merely sensational as may be seen in the plays of Shakespeare.
The supernatural in Coleridge is refined and subjective. It does not have the objective
palpability and crudeness of the marvelous in almost all pre-Coleridgean ghost
literature. In making the supernatural a psychic phenomenon, Coleridge was a
pioneer. His supernatural is as “the spot on the brain that will show itself out”. Its
pleasure is not be seen by the eyes, it is felt by the mind through the agitation and
terror it excites in the mind. In the Ancient Mariner, the horror of the Mariner’s face
is conveyed by the terror, it excites in the minds of the beholder:
I moved my lips, the pilot shrieked
And fell down in a fit.”
Coleridge’s supernaturalism is highly suggestive subtle intuitive and subjective. It the
reader who has to infer himself what he understands by a supernatural agency or
elements. It is not sudden but slowly distilled in the air. The supernatural in Coleridge
does not have any definite or fixed character. It difficult to say how much it is real
and how much of it is merely a subjective illusion.
In order to make his supernaturalismrealistic and convincing Coleridge
humanizes it. Itappears in his works, notin a traditional blood curdling and
hair raising formbut assumes
The ordinary human personality of the supernaturalincidents and characters

2. Coleridge made an epoch in the poetry of the supernatural. His imagination seems to
acquire poetic distinction in the regions of the fantastic and supernatural. He does
not invent words but present the supernatural as subtle mental states. He took up
the marvelous not for the sake of thrill or excitement but the sense of mystery that
awakens in the mind. The supernatural in The Rime of Ancient Mariner is an
atmosphere prevailing to the whole poem, there is a delicate creation of deeper
horror. Thus the purely marvelous element which Coleridge allowed in the surface of
the Rime is here a driven behind the scene. He introduced into it a concept which
was unknown in English poetry. In the Rime, this concept is illustrated by the
wedding guest being held by the eye of the Mariner and listening to his tale. Again
and again the wedding guest thinks of the wedding and tries to break the spell but
Mariner eyes keeps him bound. Thus Coleridge exhibits an equal skill in the actual
introduction of the supernatural incidents and characters.