Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Christabel 3

1 May 2026

(23 January 2015) Last time we left Christabel praying beneath an oak tree in the woods at midnight–all bad signs–and she jumped to her feet, hearing something that disturbed her prayer:

Hush, beating heart of Christabel!
Jesu, Maria, shield her well!
She folded her arms beneath her cloak,
And stole to the other side of the oak.
What sees she there?

There she sees a damsel bright,
Dressed in a silken robe of white,
That shadowy in the moonlight shone:
The neck that made that white robe wan,
Her stately neck, and arms were bare;
Her blue-veined feet unsandaled were;
And wildly glittered here and there
The gems entangled in her hair.
I guess, ‘t was frightful there to see
A lady so richly clad as she-
Beautiful exceedingly!

‘Mary mother, save me now!’
Said Christabel, ‘and who art thou?’

After a reminder by the narrator of this strange tale that our heroine should calm down, we see her moving around the tree, and she sees another young woman, dressed in white silk, her skin whiter than the robe (another symbol of beauty), with bare arms, legs, and feet, and gem-filled hair. She is a ‘lady’ we are told–as if we could not tell from the description!–another woman in the woods at midnight, beneath the same oak tree, and yet, this woman seems unprepared to be out at night, clad only in what we might call a silk nightgown–attractive, but hardly appropriate for the cold night! We should realize that her purpose in being here cannot be good; also, the fact that Christabel does not recognize her tells us that she is not from this place, meaning she had to travel some distance to get here, and she is in no preparation for such travel. Where is her horse and carriage? Where is her clothing and baggage? Where are her servants? No lady of quality, during Coleridge’s day, would be out at night, alone in the woods. Either she has been abandoned here–which means we should pity her–or, she is some kind of supernatural creature, and such a creature in the woods at night, waiting under an oak tree for our heroine, hints at some nefarious purpose yet to be revealed! Come back on Monday for more of this poem! Good reading.