Christabel Study Questions

1. What metre does Coleridge use and why?

2. Coleridge claimed to be inspired when writing Christabel by “Hymn to St Teresa” by a 17-th c. poet Richard Crashaw (see a fragment on the reverse). What does St Teresa of Avila have to do with Christabel?

3. In the opening scene, how do details about the poem's setting establish the feeling or mood?

4. Why does Christabel go to pray in the woods if presumably she has a perfectly good chapel in her castle?

5. And, why is ability to pray important for Coleridge? Think about what redeemed the Ancient Mariner.

6. What telling signs indicate that Geraldine might not be a regular girl?

7. So, who is Geraldine in your opinion?

8. How are the two women described as they sleep? How would you characterize the tone, and effect, of the narrative voice in the poem?

9. Part II: In the opening lines notice the reference to "a world of death." Is there any connection implied between this and the reference to the season of the year in Part I? What does the description of Geraldine in this Part suggest about her relation to Christabel now?

10. Is there any suggestion of the supernatural or the occult? What is the significance of the references to snakes? The image of the winged serpent is very important in the writings of the 16/17^th c. German mystic Jakob Böhme. In what context does it appear in Christabel?

11. Taking into account what has happened, and is happening, to Christabel, does it suggest that her name is symbolic?

12. Psychoanalysis 101 - what is the relationship between Christabel and her father? And what do you make of “Conclusion to Part 2” in this context?

13. Does anything in the unfinished state of the poem, and its possible theme, explain why Coleridge never finished "Christabel," though he had ample opportunity to do so?

Richard Crashaw. 1613?-1649

A Hymn to the Name and Honour

of the Admirable Saint Teresa

LOVE, thou are absolute, sole Lord

Of life and death. To prove the word,

We'll now appeal to none of all

Those thy old soldiers, great and tall,

Ripe men of martyrdom, that could reach down 5

With strong arms their triumphant crown:

Such as could with lusty breath

Speak loud, unto the face of death,

Their great Lord's glorious name; to none

Of those whose spacious bosoms spread a throne 10

For love at large to fill. Spare blood and sweat:

We'll see Him take a private seat,

And make His mansion in the mild

And milky soul of a soft child.

Scarce has she learnt to lisp a name 15

Of martyr, yet she thinks it shame

Life should so long play with that breath

Which spent can buy so brave a death.

She never undertook to know

What death with love should have to do. 20

Nor has she e'er yet understood

Why, to show love, she should shed blood;

Yet, though she cannot tell you why,

She can love, and she can die.

Scarce has she blood enough to make 25

A guilty sword blush for her sake;

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