Frost at Midnight

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the most prominent names of the early 19th century. A well-regarded philosopher and literary theorist in his own time, Coleridge is best remembered as a poet who spearheaded the English Romantic movement alongside William Wordsworth. Coleridge and Wordsworth’s 1798 collaboration Lyrical Ballads established the tenets of Romantic poetry. Despite Wordsworth’s emphasis on common language and powerful emotion, Coleridge’s poetry tends toward supernatural phenomena and speculation. Coleridge also tends to explore philosophical subjects with a nuance at odds with Wordsworth’s simplicity.

Literary critics categorize “Frost at Midnight” as one of Coleridge’s conversation poems due to its personal, reflective subject matter and lack of traditional poetic form. Written and published in 1798, 17 months after the birth of Coleridge’s son Hartley, the poem explores Coleridge’s musings on the potential of childhood and the benefits of a natural education based on events from his own life, making Coleridge the speaker of the poem. “Frost at Midnight” first appeared in a small work alongside “France: An Ode” and “Fears in Solitude,” written in the same year.

Poet Biography

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devon, England, on October 21, 1772. His father, John Coleridge, was a respected Protestant vicar and the headmaster of a local grammar school.