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Coleridge's "Christabel" and the Phantom Soul.(Critical Essay)

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From: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Date: 20020922
Author:Taylor, Anya

"Christabel" is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's longest poem, his least revised, the most satisfying to himself as its preface indicates, and his most troubling to readers. It is a poem that can drive readers "mad" or make them feel "stupid." (1) From its opening--"Tu -whit!--tu-whoo!"--its lulling, almost lobotomized repetitions--"Is the night chilly and dark? / The night is chilly but not dark"(2)--its shifting narrative voices, and its metrical hesitations and forward rushes, it lures listeners into its twilight. (3) Coleridge's opening section does to listeners what Geraldine does ...

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