This Lime

During life, many have felt that they have been excluded or even resented because of friends leaving them behind. Although this might bring disappointment, in the end, reflecting on the relationship one may have with them, while meditating upon this experience, can bring a change of attitude towards a matter thanks to the power of nature surrounding oneself. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison,” Coleridge uses tone and a slight amount of imagery, to express his point of view of the leaving of his friends, during which he is observing nature and its scenery while describing in great detail what he thinks of it through his imagination, to conclude that humans have a better understanding of life when looking at nature
In the first stanza, Coleridge has an aggrieved tone because he feels he has been treated unfairly for being left behind but is able to become conscious and is wise enough to see nature in his very own eyes. The speaker becomes aware that he is alone, but as he observes his surroundings, Coleridge signifies that those “beauties and feelings” will soon be gone after he becomes old and blind from waiting so long for his friends to come back from their walk. He is also able to imagine that his friends have gone to his favorite place he has told them about, but before the stanza comes to an end Coleridge says “Behold the dark green file of long lank weeds, / That all at once (a most fantastic sight!) (lines 17-80). Although weeds are depicted as flower killers or in other words poisonous to those flowers near it, Coleridge believes they are one of most fantastic sights he has ever seen because they make the surrounding sights even more beautiful. While at the beginning of the stanza he shows signs of hopelessness and an aggrieved tone, at the end of the stanza his tone is shifted to
Coleridge meditates on the power of nature that has influenced his thoughts. His view of nature has brought him to be certain that his friends are also enjoying nature and its lovely sights. This stanza is where Coleridge first mentions who this poem is intended to be read by, his audience, Charles Lamb, who is his one of his closest friends, whom has overcome some ‘strange calamity’ referred in line 32 which befell Coleridge’s friend Charles whom Charles’ sister, Mary Lamb, and her murder of their mother. (Crawford 188). Coleridge is attentive to the circumstance of his beloved friend Charles who has suffered so much. After this line, Coleridge suggests that Charles must be the happiest of his friends because he deserves to be happy after going through so many tragedies. Through his consideration, Coleridge is very much confident towards the future of Charles, Coleridge can say that his friend is “struck with deep joy may stand, as I have stood” (line 39). With these words he wants his friend, Charles, to look at that beauty of the landscape and continue to look at it until he understands those beautiful objects are not at all simple, but more than that (Sarker 116) and feel the same thoughtful and optimistic feeling Coleridge has experienced while looking at this scenery that has completely altered him to understand the true definition of nature and its power, Coleridge even includes the