Frost at Midnight

“Thoughts on a Still Night” by Li Bai (726 CE)

Li Bai’s “Thoughts on a Still Night” is among the most famous works of Chinese poetry. Like Coleridge in “Frost at Midnight,” Li’s speaker finds themself in a moment of stagnation that allows them to reflect on their old home. The frost in both poems acts as a marker of nighttime and as a call to contemplation while others are asleep. Though Coleridge was unlikely to be familiar with Li’s work, the Tang dynasty poet makes similar connections between frost, quiet, and contemplation.

“Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth (1807)

William Wordsworth—Coleridge’s friend and collaborator—is likely the best-known member of the English Romantic movement. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth is concerned with finding beauty in the natural world. Many of Wordsworth’s poems share the natural sentiment of “Frost at Midnight,” but “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” demonstrates that the Romantic conception of the city is not wholly negative. Wordsworth and Coleridge rely on a similar set of images in their respective poems, but Wordsworth’s sonnet depicts the city as an object of beauty in its own right.

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1834)