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Article: Coleridge's "Christabel" and the Phantom Soul.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
- Article date:
- September 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Rice University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Christabel" is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's longest poem, his least revised, the most satisfying to himself as its preface indicates, and his most troubling to readers. It is a poem that can drive readers "mad" or make them feel "stupid." (1) From its opening--"Tu -whit!--tu-whoo!"--its lulling, almost lobotomized repetitions--"Is the night chilly and dark? / The night is chilly but not dark"(2)--its shifting narrative voices, and its metrical hesitations and forward rushes, it lures listeners into its twilight. (3) Coleridge's opening section does to listeners what Geraldine does to Christabel: leaves them anxious and ungrounded. Critic after critic has tossed ...