Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Christabel 1

27 April 2026

(9 January 2015) We recall that one purpose of this blog is to share with our readers some of the poems & poets that influenced us; last time, we finished Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner,” and this time we will continue with Coleridge, since his work has had a profound influence upon ours. We turn to what is undoubtedly his strangest work–yes, stranger than the Mariner, an unfinished poem called “Christabel.” Here’s how it begins:

‘Tis the middle of night by the castle clock
And the owls have awakened the crowing cock;
Tu-whit!- Tu-whoo!
And hark, again! the crowing cock,
How drowsily it crew.
Sir Leoline, the Baron rich,
Hath a toothless mastiff, which
From her kennel beneath the rock
Maketh answer to the clock,
Four for the quarters, and twelve for the hour;
Ever and aye, by shine and shower,
Sixteen short howls, not over loud;
Some say, she sees my lady’s shroud.

Is the night chilly and dark?
The night is chilly, but not dark.
The thin gray cloud is spread on high,
It covers but not hides the sky.
The moon is behind, and at the full;
And yet she looks both small and dull.
The night is chill, the cloud is gray:
‘T is a month before the month of May,
And the Spring comes slowly up this way.
The lovely lady, Christabel,
Whom her father loves so well,
What makes her in the wood so late,
A furlong from the castle gate?
She had dreams all yesternight
Of her own betrothed knight;
And she in the midnight wood will pray
For the weal of her lover that’s far away.

Coleridge begins by setting the scene, which is midnight outside the castle of one Sir Leoline, the silence broken by the owls, waking the rooster and causing it to crow–a rooster crowing at midnight does not bode well for what follows! Further, he mentions this knight’s favorite dog, called a “toothless mastiff,” meaning the dog is quite old; this hound also wakes at night, barking every 15 minutes, but not loudly enough to wake anyone, just mark the hour like some kind of chiming clock–an odd figure. He goes on to describe the night, chilly but not dark, for a thin mist is all that obscures moon and stars. We also learn it is the beginning of April, and spring is just beginning to awaken all the plants. We finally come to our heroine, the lovely Christabel, beloved of her father; so what is the lovely, beloved girl doing in the woods at midnight–nothing good happens in the woods (think of every fairy tale you’ve heard), and even less at midnight! Why is she here? To pray for her lover, since she dreamed of him the night before, or so we think, although as you have learned, things with Coleridge are not so simple! Return again on Wednesday to find out how things for this girl change for the worse! Good reading.