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Literary narratives ballads grew in the Romantic movement from the later 18th century among social elites and intellectuals. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced a collection of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 that included Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

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How would you end this poem based on the title and other images/symbols? Use evidence to back up your claim.

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Using the following websites, write down some of the most important traits of Romantic poetry. Then, go back to Christabel, and locate evidence from the poem showing how this is an example of Romanticism.

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In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs, in spite of things silently gone out of mind and things violently destroyed, the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time. The objects of the Poet's thoughts are everywhere; though the eyes and senses of man are, it is true, his favorite guides, yet he will follow wheresoever he can find an atmosphere of sensation in which to move his wings. Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge-it is as immortal as the heart of man.
-William Wordsworth, "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"

Romanticism was arguably the largest artistic movement of the late 1700s. Its influence was felt across continents and through every artistic discipline into the mid-nineteenth century, and many of its values and beliefs can still be seen in contemporary poetry.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact start of the Romantic movement, as its beginnings can be traced to many events of the time: a surge of interest in folklore in the early to mid-nineteenth century with the work of the brothers Grimm, reactions against Neoclassicism and the Augustan poets in England, and political events and uprisings that fostered nationalistic pride.

Romantic poets cultivated individualism, reverence for the natural world, idealism, physical and emotional passion, and an interest in the mystic and supernatural. Romantics set themselves in opposition to the order and rationality of classical and neoclassical artistic precepts to embrace freedom and revolution in their art and politics. German Romantic poets included Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and British poets, such as Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, George Gordon Lord Byron, and John Keats propelled the English Romantic movement. Victor Hugo was a noted French Romantic poet as well, and Romanticism crossed the Atlantic through the work of American poets like Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe. The Romantic era produced many of the stereotypes of poets and poetry that exist to this day (i.e., the poet as a tortured and melancholy visionary).

Romantic ideals never died out in poetry, but were largely absorbed into the precepts of many other movements. Traces of romanticism lived on in French S ymbolism and S urrealism and in the work of prominent poets, such as Charles Baudelaire and Rainer Maria Rilke.
browse poets from this movement

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In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs, in spite of things silently gone out of mind and things violently destroyed, the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time.

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How is the setting used to create an ominous mood in the first half of Part I? List 5-7 examples.

Specifically what is the significance of it being "middle of the night"?

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Druids Cutting the Mistletoe on the Sixth Day of the Moon ~ Henri Paul Motte

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How does Coleridge incorporate ancient Druid and Christian symbolism of an Oak tree in order to make the symbolism of the tree complex?

How does this complex symbolism add to the ambiguity of both Christabel and Geraldine?

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Look at the pdf discussing the meaning of owls in folklore and mythology. In addition, look up owls and Bohemian Grove. Write down a list of the symbolism of the owl.

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In the context of Christabel, what do you think the owl tells the reader about Geraldine and the situation Christabel is about to encounter? Use evidence from the poem.

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Using evidence from stanza 9, analyze how the men and their horses are important symbols that reveal the character of Geraldine to the reader.

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Look through the first half of Part I. What symbols, images, and/or detail do you see that help the reader characterize Geraldine as a vampire of sorts? Find at least three examples.

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Christabel is an ambiguous (has more than one interpretation, not clear) character. Is she still "innocent" at the end of this poem? Was she solely a victim? Is there evidence to show her willingness to succumb to Geraldine? Find me four pieces of evidence showing the ambiguity of Christabel's character relating to these questions. Analyze how the evidence you chose shows the ambiguity of her character.

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Geraldine is an ambiguous character. We have found a lot of evidence showing that she is vampiric and evil, but now I want you to find me an example that shows she might not be all evil. Use evidence from the text and analyze how this evidence shows the ambiguity of her character.

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Find at least two pieces of evidence from the poem relating to the story of the Garden of Eden. Analyze their meaning in relation to Geraldine's character.

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"'Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,

And the owls have awakened the crowing cock;" (It foreshadows that a young woman is going to lose her virginity. This happens right before Geraldine appears.)

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"Of the huge, broad-breasted, old oak tree." (Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil)

"I saw a bright green snake

Coiled around its wings and neck." (Satan in snake form found at the tree)

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"The silver lamp burns dead and dim;

But Christabel the lamp will trim...

While Geraldine, in wretched plight,

Sank down upon the floor below." (Vampire's are weakened by silver)

"Do love you, holy Christabel!...Fair maiden, to requite you well.

But now unrobe yourself; for I

Must pray, ere yet in bed I lie." (This is Geraldine deceiving Christabel, trying to take her purity and innocence.)

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"And they rode furiously behind.

They spurred amain, their steeds were white" (Their white horses symbolize the goodness or holiness of the men)

"And once we crossed the shade of night." (They are of the light, she is of the dark.)

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Oak tree: Strength and protection

Mistletoe: Fertility and vitality

The oak tree is a symbol of protection, but that is where Christabel found Geraldine, the tree didn't do it's job.

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"The lady sank, belike through pain,

And Christabel with might and main

Lifted her up, a weary weight,

Over the threshold of the gate" (It displays Christabel helping Geraldine).

"Quoth Christabel, So let it be!

And as the lady bade, did she.

Her gentle limbs did she undress,

And lay down in her loveliness." (Was she under a spell or just obeying)

"Collects herself in scorn and pride,

And lay down by the Maiden's side!—

And in her arms the maid she took"(This also diplays Christabel being willing but we also don't know if she is under the influence of Geraldine)

"And while she spake, her looks, her air

Such gentle thankfulness declare...

That He, who on the cross did groan,

Might wash away her sins unknown,"(This shows ambiguity as the 2 statements are controdictory)

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"Puts on her silken vestments white" (White is usually a symbol of goodness, Geraldine contradicts this)

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"'Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,

And the owls have awakened the crowing cock"

"Hath a toothless mastiff bitch;

From her kennel beneath the rock"

"The night is chilly, but not dark.

The thin gray cloud is spread on high"

"That shadowy in the moonlight shone"

"Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?

There is not wind enough in the air"

A maiden wouldn't be out late at night, this shows the reader she is not where she is supposed to be

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"Behold! her bosom and half her side— A sight to dream of, not to tell!"(physical and emotional passion)

"In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell"

"A snake's small eye blinks dull and shy;

And the lady's eyes they shrunk in her head,

Each shrunk up to a serpent's eye,"

"For what she knew she could not tell,

O'er-mastered by the mighty spell."

(an interest in the mystic and supernatural)

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Christabel suddenly stabs Geraldine with a wooden stake. Then she goes out into the rain and prays in front of the oak tree to have her sins washed away. Suddenly, lightning strikes the oak tree and she and the tree go up in flames.

Christabel stabs Geraldine with a stake to end the evil that had manipulated her. The rain symbolizes baptism as she attempts to repent. The her going up in flames represents a divine rejection of Christabel