Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison'

Samuel Taylor Coleridge once asserted that “poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language” Coleridge’s view of poetry epitomises the value poetry has in our modern society. Poetry conveys complex, relevant issues through different styles of poetry. Coleridge was a prominent member of the Romanticism movement of the nineteenth century.

The Romanticism movement emphasised the individual’s experience and the healing power of nature. Some key features of Romanticism were idealism and emotional passions. Romantic poets created imaginative atmospheres and believed that nature and humanity were interconnected. Coleridge’s poems, especially ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’ encompass

This gives us insight into the nineteenth century and his beliefs. As the poem progresses, the speaker uses his imagination to make himself feel better. He visualises nature and proclaims that he is “glad, as I myself were there” (Coleridge 1797). This is a valuable lesson and highlights the healing power of nature on humanity.

The unusual aspect of the poem is the conversational style it is written in. Coleridge twists the traditional style of poetry and writes as he talks to his friend Charles. The three stanzas are of uneven length and are written in blank verse. Blank verse is effective as it allows the poem to be more informal and captures the speaker’s mood. He uses enjambment as many lines carry onto the next without any pauses.

‘anyone lived in a pretty how town’ conveys American life and humanity’s feelings his use of syntax. The first line of the poem implies that ‘anyone’ is the protagonist of the poem and that he lives in a ‘pretty how town.’ The use of ‘how’ in this sentence is unusual and acts as a adjective for town. This is especially appealing to the current generation who dislike the conformity of poetry. Cummings critiques small American towns as the speaker says that the town “cared for anyone not at all” (Cummings 1940). His clever use of language refers to both the protagonist and the loss of

This indicates that everything stays the same except for the inevitability of the seasons changing, and thus the connections humans share with nature. Cummings is rebelling against the lack of individualism and change in American societies.

Cummings and Coleridge both explore being forgotten, albeit in different ways. Cummings does so in a much more nonchalant way than Coleridge as the speaker says “i guess anyone died one day” (Cummings 1940). The ‘i’ is not even capitalised detailing a lack of care for ‘anyone’ and demonstrating the fear of being forgotten. Cummings’ uses parentheses to add extra information as the speaker says “Women and men (both little and small)” (Cummings 1940). Cummings’ style is attractive to readers who dislike poetry because it promotes uniqueness and rejects conformity.

Additionally, Cummings and Coleridge were both subversive in their respective eras. Their experimental poems inspire us to be more creative because we can see the influence they have had on modern society. Both poets are more interested in conveying common feelings of humanity, rather than following specific poetic