A Study Of S. T. Coleridge’s Nightingale From The Perspective Of Eco-criticism

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a world acknowledged mile-stone figure for bothBritish and the world literature and thought. As one of the most important Britishromantic poets, Coleridge profoundly expresses his deep concern over the relationshipbetween man and nature. If his later supernatural poetry focuses on warning andcriticizing man’s ignorance and greed towards nature, his earlier poetry very sensiblyexpounds the new relationship between man and nature and teaches man the rightattitude to take and the right way to behave. Taking The Nightingale: A ConversationPoem as a case study, Coleridge’s most representative early poem, the dissertation tendsto examine deeply and evaluate objectively the poet’s nature consciousness and his earlyperiod ecological wisdom.The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem, simple and clear in both its title andlanguage but significant in its new image of the bird nightingale, most importantlyrepresents Coleridge’s early nature view by carefully and clearly expounding his newunderstanding of nature and his keen perception into the new relationship between manand nature in a new era when England was just in the progress of its firstindustrialization. At the very beginning of the poem, Coleridge introduces a key theme:the place of man in nature where the natural landscape might not be immediatelypleasing; it might be “dim” or melancholy, yet if we understand nature correctly, we willfind “pleasure in the dimness of the stars”(9-11). After making this point, Coleridgestrongly questions the association between the nightingale and the melancholy bycriticizing those especially some poets who did not understand actual nightingales andhe calls on poets should immerse themselves in the joyful nature. Next Coleridge makesclear that his spontaneous and unconscious thinking of the melancholy nightingale whenseeing his friends off is the just result of his deep knowledge and internalization of theliterary tradition. Lastly, by telling his friends a story about his eighteen-month-old sonHartley, Coleridge again stresses his view that nature is always there and joyful and man should be close to nature. By writing about Nightingale, Coleridge establishes a brand---a new image of nature which should be the most significant perception for the textitself. Comparing with the ancient Greek grieved nightingale, Milton’s melancholynightingale, Keats’ distressed nightingale, Coleridge’s Nightingale is a merry one,comforting and rejoicing what confirms the profoundness in Coleridge’s nature view:nature, partner and friend of man, has its own value of existence and “in Nature there isnothing melancholy”.One of the key features of English romantic poetry is its deep concern over therelationship between man and nature. Coleridge’s poetry, consciously taking the socialresponsibility of teaching man, very sensibly and clearly explains the new relationshipbetween man and nature. He insists that man should learn from and go into nature,restrain from any arbitrary action upon nature, appreciate nature’s value and respectnature’s divinity. Coleridge’s intelligent nature consciousness agrees with the essence ofthe modern ecological ethic which deserves far more enough attention in thecontemporary value structure. The dissertation, from the perspective of moderneco-criticism, aims to better understand the symbolic significance of the new image ofnightingale and find out the profoundness and great ecological wisdom in Coleridge’searly nature poetry.