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REVISION GUIDE

From ‘Fears in Solitude’

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Thankless too for peace,

(Peace long preserved by fleets and perilous seas)
Secure from actual warfare, we have loved
To swell the war-whoop, passionate for war!
Alas! for ages ignorant of all
Its ghastlier workings, (famine or blue plague,
Battle, or siege, or flight through wintry snows,)
We, this whole people, have been clamorous
For war and bloodshed; animating sports,
The which we pay for as a thing to talk of,
Spectators and not combatants! No guess
Anticipative of a wrong unfelt,
No speculation on contingency,
However dim and vague, too vague and dim
To yield a justifying cause; and forth,
(Stuffed out with big preamble, holy names,
And adjurations of the God in Heaven,)
We send our mandates for the certain death
Of thousands and ten thousands! Boys and girls,
And women, that would groan to see a child
Pull off an insect’s leg, all read of war,
The best amusement for our morning meal!
The poor wretch, who has learnt his only prayers
From curses, who knows scarcely words enough
To ask a blessing from his Heavenly Father,
Becomes a fluent phraseman, absolute
And technical in victories and defeats,
And all our dainty terms for fratricide;
Terms which we trundle smoothly o’er our tongues
Like mere abstractions, empty sounds to which
We join no feeling and attach no form!
As if the soldier died without a wound;
As if the fibres of this godlike frame
Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch,

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Who fell in battle, doing bloody deeds,

Passed off to Heaven, translated and not killed;
As though he had no wife to pine for him,
No God to judge him! Therefore, evil days
Are coming on us, O my countrymen!
And what if all-avenging Providence,
Strong and retributive, should make us know
The meaning of our words, force us to feel
The desolation and the agony
Of our fierce doings?

VOCABULARY

Thankless - not grateful

Perilous - extremely dangerous

Warfare - the state of war

War-whoop - the cry of war

Alas - an expression of sadness, a bit like ‘Oh dear’ or ‘Oh no!’

Gored - shaped with a gore or gores.

Ghastlier - unpleasant and shocking

Clamorous - making a lot of noise

Plague - disease

Spectator - someone who watches a sport or show

Combatant - a fighter, someone who takes part in the sport or show

Anticipative - waiting for something to happen

Clamourous - shouting

Preamble - a talk or activity that comes before the main event

Adjurations - solemn oaths / serious promises

Mandate - an official order to do something

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Phraseman -a person who uses clever phrases

Dainty -small, delicate, and often moving in a careful way

Wretch - a wretched person, someone who is doomed to suffer and be miserable

Fratricide -the crime of murdering your brother, or killing members of your own group

Trundle - to move slowly

Gored - to pierce or wound with something pointed

Retributive - actions which bring about justice

Desolation - the state of a place that is empty or where things are destroyed

Providence - the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power

STORY + SUMMARY

I was not grateful for peace (which had been long preserved by war ships and
dangerous seas). Despite being safe from actual warfare, we have enjoyed shouting the
war-cry, to show that we are passionate for war! Alas! For ages, oblivious to all its
terrible workings (such as famine or blue plague, battle or siege, or running away
through wintry snows) we, this entire people, have been shouting, asking for war and
bloodshed, those exciting sports, which we pay for as something to talk about, which we
watch as spectators rather than taking part in them as fighters! We send our orders for
the certain death of thousands and ten thousand, stuffed with big preambles, holy
names, and promises of God in Heaven! Boys and girls, and women, who would groan
to see a child pull off an insect’s leg, are all ready for war, the best amusement for our
morning meal! The poor wretched young soldier, who barely knows enough words to
ask his Heavenly Father for a blessing, becomes a fluent speaker, absolute and
technical in victories and defeats, and all our dainty terms for killing our brothers; terms
that trundle smoothly over our tongues like mere abstractions, empty sounds to which
we join no feeling and attach no shape! As if the soldier died without a wound; as if their
godlike frame's fibres were gored without sharp pain; as if the wretch, who fell in battle
whilst doing bloody deeds, was translated and not killed; as if he had no wife to pine for
him, no God to judge him! Therefore, evil days are coming on us, my countrymen! And
what if an all-powerful, vengeful providence made us understand the meaning of our
words, forcing us to feel the desolation and agony of our heinous actions?

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SPEAKER + VOICE

This poem is the fifth stanza of the longer poem, Fears in Solitude, in which The
speaker is in an angry, resentful mood. He expresses sadness about bloodshed and
deaths as a result of wars, where political leaders turn a blind eye to the suffering of
individuals who die in war for their own selfish gains. The anger is also directed towards
mindless civilians, who are tricked into thinking that war is noble and heroic, and that
soldiers are dying for a true cause - the unfairness of the soldier’s deaths merely ‘swell
the war-whoop’, creating passion for more war and destruction - and the people who
read and learn about war without taking part, believing everything that the government
and media tells them, are just ‘spectators’ who look on at the bloodshed as if it were an
entertaining sport, with no guilt or pity for those who suffer and die needlessly in battle.
He says, ‘Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch,/ Who fell in battle, doing bloody
deeds,/Passed off to Heaven, translated and not killed,/ As though he had no wife to
pine for him.’ In other words, Coleridge is shocked at the way in which most people
have no emotional reaction to the soldiers’ suffering - they act as if they died without
pain and went to heaven peacefully, with nobody mourning their death.

LANGUAGE

Simile - ‘Like mere abstractions, empty sounds to which/Terms which we trundle

smoothly o’er our tongues’ - Coleridge employs the use of similes so as to create
imagery thus engaging the addressee visually through imagination. He makes us see
how effortlessly the general public speak about war, as if it were just a story or some
form of entertainment rather than a real, visceral event which causes immense
suffering.

Anaphora - ‘As if the soldier died without a wound;/ As if the fibres of this godlike
frame/ Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch, / Who fell in battle, doing bloody
deeds,’ - the repeated phrase ‘as if’ creates a set of compounding similes here, which
make each atrocity committed against the soldiers increasingly worse than the last.

Visual Imagery - ‘As if the fibres of this godlike frame/Were gored without a pang’- the
writer tries to paint gory, violent pictures for his addressees through use of vivid
description. He describes the fibres as having a godlike frame to show us the strength
of the frame, and perhaps to remind us that humans are created by God, and therefore
their lives should be respected and not spent in vain on pointless wars.

Onomatopoeia - ‘Alas!’ and ‘Pang’ - Coleridge uses onomatopoeia to grab the attention
of the addressees and enhance auditory imagery to evoke the sounds of war and
despair.

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STRUCTURE + FORM

Enjambment - ‘From curses, who knows scarcely words enough/To ask a blessing from
his Heavenly Father’ - this enables the writer to advance his thoughts and ideas onto
the next line without forcing a grammatical pause.

The poem uses a conversational style, with iambic pentameter. Iambic feet are used
to evoke natural speech in poetry, whilst providing a sense of progress through the
forward momentum that they create - they are also often called ‘rising metre’ because
the lines feel like they are inspirational or motivational, giving a sense that Coleridge’s
poem is intended to incite readers to take political action and oppose pointless wars in
their country. It is also one of Coleridge’s ‘Conversation poems’, a specific form which
he invented (see context for more info).

It is also important to note that the speaker expresses his emotions passionately as
depicted by the extensive use of exclamation marks throughout the poem, which
convey intense emotional distress and urge readers to listen and respond.

The poet uses anaphora at the start of some adjacent lines. The words ‘a, and, we,
the, as, all, and in’ are all repeated.

CONTEXT

Coleridge’s poem ‘Fears in Solitude’ was penned in April 1798 - the stanza above is
an extract from the longer piece. The poem was written while France threatened to
invade the United Kingdom - Coleridge’s political sympathies were divided, as he did
initially support the French Revolution, which sought to end monarchy and redistribute
wealth and power away from the Church and wealthy individuals. However, as France
continued to expand its Revolutionary campaign and invaded Switzerland, Coleridge’s
support for the nation waned - he explains this further in the poem ‘France: An Ode’.

Coleridge further expressed opposition to the British government and its prime minister
at the time (William Pitt), as can be seen in the stanza above, which criticises the way in
which governments can manipulate individuals through propaganda; in contrast, the full
poem ultimately supports the British people in their patriotic defence of their homeland.
Moreover, it emphasises the desire to safeguard one's loved ones and lead a simple,
natural life. The poem elicited mixed reactions from critics, with some claiming that it
was "alarmist" and anti-British.

Conversation poems - Coleridge wrote a series of eight ‘Conversation poems’, which

all examined important experiences in his life that made him think or feel differently
about the world - in particular, causing him to re-evaluate man’s place in the natural
world and our obligations to God, nature and society as a whole. In this extract from

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‘Fears in Solitude’, it seems that society is failing its individuals in sending idealistic
young men to war and expecting them to die, even though causes are not clearly
defined or morally justifiable.

ATTITUDES

Common citizens feel the effects of war on a greater level - Coleridge describes
soldiers who end up dying at war and leaving behind widows and their children, showing
that war doesn’t only impact soldiers, but the entire nation as a whole.

We are slaves of authoritative institutions such as the Church and the

government- Coleridge was a free-thinking political activist, who harboured some
oppositional and controversial views on the institutions of his day. Though he was highly
religious, he was also distrustful of the absolute power of the Church and its ability to
manipulate and control society - he also opposed the similar way in which the
government operated, authoritatively manipulating people into believing, for instance,
that wars were noble and justified. In the extract above, Coleridge alludes to the idea
that since Britain are unable to justify the war they started, they have resorted to using
God as an excuse for their atrocious acts and that goes to show that the ‘countrymen’
are slaves to the Church’s dogma.

Equally, he criticises the government’s propaganda, and the way in which war is
depicted more as sport or entertainment than as its tragic and violent reality: ‘We
send our mandates for the certain death / Of thousands and ten thousands.’ - these
authorities sign papers and make declarations that impact the lives of thousands and
ten thousands, without feeling any guilt or remorse. Coleridge asks us to reconsider
whether these kinds of institutions really should hold the kind of power that allows them
to sign away people’s lives like that.

THEMES

● Politics
● War
● Peace
● Liberation
● Religion
● Perseverance
● Authority and Power
● Human nature

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