Poet’s Corner: Coleridge–Christabel 15

10 June 2026

(24 April 2015) We’re back with another installment from Coleridge’s unfinished “Christabel.” We remind our readers of the phrase Christabel’s father says every morning, “Each matin bell . . . knells us back to a world of death,” and note that along with this daily custom, the bell is tolled 45 times, with a counter stroke between each sounding. Now we meet another member of Christabel’s household, the bard, who comments on the tolling of the bell:

Saith Bracy the bard, So let it knell!
And let the drowsy sacristan
Still count as slowly as he can!
There is no lack of such, I ween,
As well fill up the space between.
In Langdale Pike and Witch’s Lair,
And Dungeon-ghyll so foully rent,
With ropes of rock and bells of air
Three sinful sextons’ ghosts are pent,
Who all give back, one after t’other,
The death-note to their living brother;
And oft too, by the knell offended,
Just as their one! two! three! is ended,
The devil mocks the doleful tale
With a merry peal from Borodale.

Bracy the bard, commenting on the complaints against this daily tolling of the bell, says, simply, ‘let the bells ring, and who cares what anyone says!’ The bard goes on to remark that there will be no lack of complainers no matter where, or how often the bell tolls, and he adds a ‘mini’ story–he is a bard after all!–of the ghosts of three sextons (minor officers in the church, those who take care of the building and grounds), sinful sextons, who are ‘pent’, or contained, by the tolling of the bell. Recall that the bells are sounded, both to chase away the night, and send the spirits–good or evil–back to their rest, and these spirits include the devil himself. However, to make this mini story a cautionary tale, the bard reminds Sir Leoline that in spite of the power of the bells to contain these spirits of the night, the devil still responds with a ‘merry peal’ from a nearby village, an odd thing for a bard to tell his patron; one can only assume that he does this to lighten the mood of our brooding baron. We will share more in the coming week, and get back to our heroine in peril! Good reading!