Christianity In Coleridge's Three Demonic Poems

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), philosopher and the first critic of the Romantic school, was also one of the most famous lyrical poets in the nineteenth British literary history. His poems are full of originality, wild imagination and beauty. His profound influence on the aesthetic life of his time and later literary schools is unquestioned. No other major English poet has his reputation based on so slender a volume of poetry. He was also reputedly a brilliant conversationalist, and his lectures on Shakespeare remain among the most important statements in literary criticism.This paper attempts to analyze (and only focus on) the common theme——Christianity——presented in Coleridge's three famous demonic poems: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel and Kubla Khan. The analysis tries to explore the humanism and religious, Christian, to be exact, concern over the fate of human beings'.The paper mainly consists of six parts. After giving a brief introduction of the studies, both home and abroad, on the poet and his works in the first part, the paper moves on to its analysis of the longest poem Coleridge ever wrote: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The author thinks that by describing a fantastic adventure on the sea, the poet intends to teach us a moral lesson: Do not violate the Divine law, or you will be severely punished by God.In the second chapter, the papers aims at the mysterious yet bit of Gothic poem Christabel. The author thinks that the fight between the innocent, also Christlike, heroine Christabel and the evil snake-like lady Geraldine resembles that of good and evil, as is always depicted in the Bible and Biblical works.The paper turns to discuss the fragmental and dream-like Kubla Khan in the third chapter. It finds that the description of the pleasure-dome in the poem suggests that beyond the poet's wild imagination and rich imagery lies the poet's strong desire for paradise, which, according to the Bible, is a care-free land ever lost after Eve's fall.The fourth chapter summarizes the three dimensions which Coleridge employed to present his literary imagination from a religious perspective: Quotation of the Biblical narrative structure, borrowing and transformation of the Biblical images and symbols and creation of the Christlike heroes. All this shows the poet's great concern over human being's tragic life in the mortal world.The last part serves as a conclusive part of the paper. It explores the family and social background under which Coleridge developed his religious value.