In their Lyrical Ballads, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth experimented with traditional forms and interpreted them in new ways. Although they garnered little attention at the time of their publication, the Ballads broke outside established boundaries not only with respect to meter and form, but also subject matter and tone. Coleridge made use of four-foot couplets and ambiguous themes to help create an air of mystery and controversy in his various works. Coleridge differs from his colleague Wordsworth's writings which describe the natural world with poems focusing primarily on the supernatural. However, while Wordsworth attempted to discover the remarkable aspects that can be found in the natural order of things, Coleridge sought to place the supernatural within the confines of reality, thus making it more realistic. In his poem Christabel, he tries to combine the supernatural with the natural by juxtaposing the fantastic in a realistic context. Coleridge introduces a supernatural presence, Geraldine, into the realistic world, thus accentuating her fantastic nature by contrasting her with Christabel, the natural figure. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Coleridge combines the supernatural with the natural to blur the lines between fantasy and reality and, as a result, let readers choose between the sensibilities of disbelief and faith. She introduces the image of "daylight witchcraft" through her character Geraldine, whose supernatural qualities are evident even during the day, a rare moment in the usual romantic works. Although she is introduced at night, under the moonlight, and apparently preys on Christabel during the night, her nature is continually revealed the next day, under the sun. It's as if not even the sun can hide her true evil nature, as she is hell-bent on attacking Christabel's soul, causing her to have fits of hissing and cold. Through this "daylight witchcraft" Coleridge removes the mysterious fantastic image of moonlight and makes this supernatural aspect of his poetry more real by setting it during the day. This adds an even more chilling thought: one is not free from these things even during the day or even at night. Coleridge attempts to make the unrealistic aspects more realistic, thus not excluding them from something that readers could possibly experience. This increases the disturbing atmosphere of the poem, as it is no longer clear that it is purely fantastic and something that cannot be experienced by normal men and women. The character Christabel acts as a mediator between the reader and the supernatural. Just as she is a normal person who exists in the physical world, including what she can judge from her senses, so are the readers. They can relate to her on a basic level as all normal people, at some point in their lives, have believed they have experienced a supernatural event. Just as this normal person, Christabel, has experienced great and inexplicable things, the audience believes she has experienced something similar. This allows supernatural events to become common and more recognizable to the common man. Through Christabel, the audience can vicariously experience these fantastic events, making them more believable in their eyes. Coleridge indirectly compares the two young women Christabel and Geraldine, the former representing a person from the natural world, limited by what she can perceive through her senses, and the latter being the mysterious creature of the supernatural realm, who comes to the moonlight and enchants everyone. those around her. Coleridge uses the effect ofGeraldine on Christabel as a means of imposing this effect on her audience as well. The poem has stepped outside the regular confines of accepted form, drawing on unusual metrical patterns and hints at the unseen. Coleridge did this to add to the idea of ​​"witchcraft in daylight", simply hinting at the supernatural elements present in such a naturalistic setting. He measured each line not by accent but by accents, creating an anapestic tetrameter:BLCOKQUOTE[It is the middle / of the night / by the clock / of the castle, And the owls / have awakened / the crowing / of the cock;You/ -whit!/ -You/-whoo! And listen, / again! / the crowing / of the rooster, as / the drow / fool / chirps. (lines 1-5)]Alludes to the invisible, to what cannot be understood by the human senses, with the entrance of Geraldine's character. Her appearance itself is fantastic, and the air around her is shrouded in mystery. Even the old mastiff, normally so quiet and harmless, becomes agitated and howls when approached, because he feels both that it is out of place that a stranger should come to the castle and Geraldine's supernatural qualities. The latent sexuality of the piece also suggests something baser about the nature of Geraldine and Christabel's relationship. Like other romance pieces, Christabel is full of ambiguity regarding sexual orientation and hints at a sexual attraction between the two women. Christabel's perception of Geraldine and the dream can be thought of as her attraction to Geraldine or a consequent fantasy or as Geraldine's ghost-like presence, haunting her dreams. Regardless, Geraldine seems to enchant and attract those around her, including Christabel and the Baron. As Christabel's appearance becomes more haggard and tired throughout the piece, Geraldine only becomes more beautiful, which suggests that Geraldine is feeding on Christabel's soul. This may also suggest that the supernatural figure Geraldine is gaining strength and becoming more prominent in the piece, going so far as to entertain herself during the day, a time when the realistic figure, Christabel, would gain strength. Although Coleridge's intent in writing something like Christabel outwardly differs from Wordsworth's, the two writers both attempt to combine elements of the supernatural and the natural, both making the supernatural more "real" and finding extraordinary qualities in the natural realm. Wordsworth's poems describe the world in a purely natural state and attempt to demonstrate that remarkable and extraordinary qualities can be found in such a regular environment. It remains exclusively in the realm of what is natural and can be grasped by one's senses and attempts to find supernatural qualities within that normality. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth attempts to merge the two worlds, but rather as a means of finding exceptional qualities of the realistic world. However, Coleridge's pieces, Rime of an Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, and Christabel, describe events that are, overtly or indirectly, fantastic in their supernatural states. In these supernatural poems, Coleridge intends to combine the natural and the fantastic and, as a result, touches on realism. This, he describes in his Biographia Literaria, allows readers to believe it, if only for a moment: "to transfer from our inner nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to provide these shadows of the imagination that voluntary suspension of disbelief for now" Remember: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay This increases the effect of his piece Christabel and its ambiguous hints also at the relationship between Geraldine and Christabel as Geraldine's true nature. If the fantastic elements of a given work are almost believable for the.