Coleridge uses the contrasting images of light and dark in "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" and noise and silence in "Frost at Midnight" to create a motif that highlights his physical nearness, yet separation from, those around him. In "Lime-Tree Bower", Coleridge describes how his mobile friends pass from the light of day into the shaded umbrage of the dell, then emerge again into the bright sun. He, however, rests in the shadows of his prison. Later, though, he notices that he too is residing in a place of both light and shadow. "Pale beneath the blaze/Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd/Some broad and sunny leaf..."
In "Frost at Midnight" Coleridge contrasts the loud world outside his cottage with the peace and silence that he finds within. He at first believes this to be a separation of himself and his child from the world, but as he pays closer attention, there is sound even within this cottage. The soot in the hearth grate, though a small sound, "By its own moods interprets, everywhere/echo or mirror seeking of itself,/and makes a toy of Thoughts"
In remembering his school days, he reflects on how, although he was isolated, his child will be free to roam and experience the world without restriction. This child will prosper under the noise of the summer birds or the silence of the winter frost.
These familiar contrasts allow the reader to involve multiple senses when reading these poems. The imagined visuals of sunlight streaming through a canopy of leaves, or the well-known feeling of an uncomfortably quiet room, suggest realistic settings. This is unlike some poems like "Ode to the West Wind" or "O Solitude" that give only a little thought to the setting in which the poem takes place. For Coleridge, the setting is very important, both to ground the reader, and to serve as a character of sorts - one whose emotion interacts with the narrator in a meaningful way.
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