Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Christabel 7

20 May 2026

(20 February 2015) Last time, we saw the weakness that filled Geraldine as she crossed the threshold into the castle, and we noted this weakness was a sign of evil, for evil creatures cannot enter hallowed spaces without someone on the inside. We also saw the family dog’s negative reaction–in her sleep–as Geraldine enters, and now we will see them as they pass through the hall, going to Christabel’s chamber:

They passed the hall, that echoes still,
Pass as lightly as you will!
The brands were flat, the brands were dying,
Amid their own white ashes lying;
But when the lady passed, there came
A tongue of light, a fit of flame;
And Christabel saw the lady’s eye,
And nothing else saw she thereby,
Save the boss of the shield of Sir Leoline tall,
Which hung in a murky old niche in the wall.
O softly tread, said Christabel,
My father seldom sleepeth well.

Sweet Christabel her feet doth bare,
And jealous of the listening air
They steal their way from stair to stair,
Now in glimmer, and now in gloom,
And now they pass the Baron’s room,
As still as death, with stifled breath!
And now have reached her chamber door;
And now doth Geraldine press down
The rushes of the chamber floor.

Here we see another sign that Geraldine is not what she appears to be: as the two women pass through the main hall, where the ‘brands’–wood burning in the fireplace–have all but fallen to ash, a single tongue of flame flares, as if in response to the presence of one who can master the elements. Christabel reminds us, and Geraldine, that her father sleeps poorly, so tread softly. We next see them passing through the castle, the moon illuminating them as they pass from window to window, and when they pass the baron’s room (Christabel’s father), the poet notes how they pass “as still as death, with stifled breath,” meaning that they held their breath as they passed so as not to disturb the sleeper. The poet concludes this stanza with an odd turn of phrase, not saying that she entered the room, but that her feet now “press down / The rushes of the chamber floor”–an odd way to describe it, while calling attention to the fact that the floor is covered with ‘rushes,’ which were aromatic branches cut to both insulate the floor and freshen the sometimes stale air within the chamber. On Friday we will see how things proceed after the two women enter the chamber of Christabel! Good reading!