Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Christabel 13

5 June 2026

(10 April 2015) We return with the rest of the conclusion to the first part of Coleridge’s unfinished “Christabel,” recalling that, in the poet’s view, some supernatural event has taken place, for reasons unknown, and which causes our heroine remorse. The poet continues, telling us time has passed:

A star hath set, a star hath risen,
O Geraldine! since arms of thine
Have been the lovely lady’s prison.
O Geraldine! one hour was thine—
Thou’st had thy will! By tairn and rill,
The night-birds all that hour were still.
But now they are jubilant anew,
From cliff and tower, tu—whoo! tu—whoo!
Tu—whoo! tu—whoo! from wood and fell!

We are told, or reminded, that Geraldine has imprisoned Christabel within her arms for an hour, in which she “had [her] will,” and what that means is left up to the reader, although there is an obvious interpretation to that phrase! However, we remind the reader that witches, as Geraldine seems to be, were notorious in their practices and appetites, capturing the unwary for these nefarious acts with little regard for who they grabbed. This moment is not an instance of proto-feminism; if it were, then the movement would have begun long before Coleridge, somewhere in the depths of ancient literature.

And see! the lady Christabel
Gathers herself from out her trance;
Her limbs relax, her countenance
Grows sad and soft; the smooth thin lids
Close o’er her eyes; and tears she sheds—
Large tears that leave the lashes bright!
And oft the while she seems to smile
As infants at a sudden light!

Yea, she doth smile, and she doth weep,
Like a youthful hermitess,
Beauteous in a wilderness,
Who, praying always, prays in sleep.
And, if she move unquietly,
Perchance, ’tis but the blood so free
Comes back and tingles in her feet.
No doubt, she hath a vision sweet.
What if her guardian spirit ’twere,
What if she knew her mother near?
But this she knows, in joys and woes,
That saints will aid if men will call:
For the blue sky bends over all!

We are next told that our heroine finally manages to sleep, escaping, for the moment, her remorse, although she has moments, while sleeping, where the tears flow anew. Opposite to this remorse, she has moments where she smiles/moves like a child, or an innocent, who has no knowledge or interest in the adult world & its problems. Next week, on Monday we will move into the second part, where we finally get to meet her father, the Baron, Sir Leoline–an interesting name! Good reading!