Thursday, January 6, 2011

A Peaceful Land

People may question if love exists but love doesn’t have to be between two people. Love can be for a pet, nature, inanimate objects, people and more. Coleridge writes about his love for a girl named Sara, as well as his love for nature, in his poem The Eolian Harp. They sit together in a cot that is overgrown with white jasmine flowers and broad leaved myrtle. The scenery by cot is beautiful as they look to the sky at the clouds and at the star of eve. He defines the world as hushed and the sea in the distance “tells us of silence.” This sounds like a very romantic place. Listening to the sea has always soothed me making it easy to understand what Coleridge and Sara hear and feel. As they sit they hear a lute playing as the wind inconsistently blows. He explains the lute as a “soft floating witchery of sound” as he lets his imagination run wild. According to Coleridge, twilight elfins make this same noise as the flute when they “voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land.”  In Fairy-Land, “Melodies round honey-dripping flowers… like birds of paradise,” meaning that the sound is so sweet and desirable.
In this world that is so full of wonderful things, Coleridge thinks it would be hard not to love it all. The breeze would whistle in this magical land and still air is “Music slumbering on her instrument.” The whistle in the wind reminds me of how harsh winds make the same unpleasant sound as it flows past your ears.  At noon, Coleridge stretches his limbs on the slope as he is watching the sunbeams dance like diamonds. The sunbeams can have the appearance of diamonds when they hit the water. I would love to be in this beautiful and peaceful place.
Coleridge ends the poem with talking about God. He praises him because God is who healed him when he was a sinful and miserable man. Both Coleridge and Sara walk humbly with God explaining Sara as a “Meek daughter in the family of Christ.” Coleridge is thankful that God gave him peace, his cot and Sara.

No comments:

Post a Comment