The Uniqueness of Christabel and Her Influence

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Christabel sets a solid standard for Romantic poetry. It is filled with all aspects of the Romantic influence, such as strongly portrayed emotions, detailed imagery involving all of the senses, presence in and awe of nature, and the internal workings of the characters. Unlike Wordsworth, who usually concentrates on the real and natural side of Romanticism, Coleridge uses airs of the supernatural in his works. With these as his themes, Coleridge weaves a poem wondrous in many ways: in story, in imagery, and in sound.

Probably the most influential part of this poem, in my opinion, is the sound. It is hard to pinpoint a rhyme scheme that is true for the entire poem, as the stanza structure changes throughout the poem. Sometimes he uses AABBCCDD, at others ABABCC. This mixture of stanza and rhyme styles is quite interesting to listen to and draws the reader in. One of the main ideas of the Romantic movement is that a writer should express things in new creative and imaginative ways. By mixing different length stanzas and varying rhyme schemes in this single poem, Coleridge creates his own unique poetic style, achieving one of the most desired aspects of Romanticism, free and individual expression.

The themes of the poem combined with the varying rhyme scheme, create a certain mood, dark and eerie and filled with awe and anxiety. As I was reading the poem, I could not help but think of two poems that reminded me of Christabel. These are Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman and Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee. Poe works were published in the 1840s, thirty years after Coleridge published Christabel. Noyes’ poem, however, was not written until much later, and was published in 1906. These other two poems seem strongly influenced by Coleridge’s Christabel.

Theme-wise, the similarities of the poems include natural places and strong emotions such as fear, longing, and sorrow. Christabel takes place in the courtyard of a manor and focuses for part of the poem on an oak tree. Highwayman maintains focus in the countryside, which Romantics preferred over towns and cities. Annabel Lee is written to take place in kingdom by the sea. Strong emotions and responses to emotions are another important aspect of the poems. Coleridge’s poem deals with several very powerful emotions. It contains fear, wonderment, and sorrow. Noyes’ poem contains all that but wonderment, as Bess fears for the unnamed highwayman and his sorrow at her loss. Poe, too, follows suit but replaces fear with longing. In Annabel Lee, the speaker longs for his lost love, and sorrow for her as well, but expresses a kind of awe that he experiences when he remembers Annabel Lee. (It is also interesting to note the similarity between "Christabel" and "Annabel Lee".)

For fun, here's a link to an Epic Rap Battle of History with Edgar Allan Poe.

Discussion Questions:
Is the varying rhyme scheme effective to you? How about the varying stanza lengths? What are some specific examples within the poem that really shows the Romantic nature?