Samuel Coleridge wrote “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”. The speaker regards the lime-tree-bower under which he sits as a prison despite the beautiful description. He desires to get out with friends to enjoy the wonderful nature that surrounds him. As a result, the speaker interprets the limestone-tree bower to be a prison. The lime-treebower is turned into something dark and oppressive by the speaker’s imagination. His negative thoughts trap him in a prison that he makes for himself. Wordsworth’s poem “Nuns Feet Not at their Convent’s Narrow Room” also examines the symbol of the prison. This is in contrast to the daily responsibilities one has and the effects these routines have upon one’s life. In this poem, the speaker cautions against letting your mind wander too far and suggests that you find comfort in structure. Compare the wisdom of Nuns Fret Not with that of this speaker in “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” and you will see the flaws in his lime-tree-bower reading. This essay will argue the significance of both the prison symbol and the lime-tree bender in both works. It reveals one’s imagination’s ability to change one’s environment for the better or worse.
The speaker sets up a lime-tree-bower as his prison in “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison.” His negative thoughts cause the beautiful bower to become distorted. He laments about how “here must [he] be” when his friends are going for a walk that he cannot take because he hurts. Although the lime-tree bowler is beautiful, he can’t go with his friends because it overwhelms him. The speaker turns the setting into prison by turning the setting into a prison. “Nuns Fret Not,” warns against allowing one’s imagination to control because it can create a darkened reality. He sympathizes for those “who have felt too much liberty” as they are troubled by a too free mind (Wordsworth 12). This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison has a speaker who is suffering from distress. His mind is free to roam and create a prison. “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”‘s speaker is reminiscing about the things that he will miss on his walk with friends. He says, “most grateful,/ [of] Charles’ gentle-hearted Charles!” for [Charles] hadt pined/ And hungry’d after Nature for many a years/ In great City pent” Coleridge 27-30 The following stanza says, “A delight/ Came sudden on [his] soul, and [he]’s] glad/ As [he][him]self were there!” 44-46 Recognizing that Charles doesn’t often get to enjoy nature due to his urban position, the speaker sees the beauty in the lime-tree bower as well as the natural environment in which he lives. Charles’s rare experiences with nature help him to see that the lime-tree bowler is not a prison. When he realizes how lucky he is to be in nature right now, his perspective shifts. The speaker in “Nuns Fret Not” assures readers that the prison that we are entangled into is “truly the prison” (Wordsworth 8-9). Your everyday life structures are not prisons. They provide a safe place to find joy and comfort. A structure or environment can be made into a prison by the mind if it is willing to allow it. If you look at things from a positive angle, even mundane structures that may seem like prisons can actually be liberating. Coleridge’s poem demonstrates this concept with the stark contrast between Coleridge and Coleridge’s feelings regarding the lime-treebower symbol at the start and at the finish. Anything can be made into prison by the power of your subjective reality, and your mind.
In “Nuns Fret Not”, a speaker offers valuable advice about how a too free mind can make any situation a prison. He relies on the Sonnet-form of the poem for solace. However, the poem suggests structure is beneficial because it helps to ground the freedom of the brain. The speaker suggests that an overly free mind is weighed down. This is shown in “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison”. It is only when the speaker’s thoughts are set in the context between Charles’s and his own, that his imagination can be grounded and he is able to see the beauty in his surroundings. Coleridge’s speaker can now understand Wordsworth’s poem when he writes “Pleased, if some Souls(for such there are)/ Who have felt a burden of liberty/ He should find brief solace at that place. “This Lime-Tree Bower” is about a speaker who is too free at first, but finds comfort in the lime-treebower at the end. This is similar to how “Nuns Fret Not”, where he doesn’t view rigid forms as prisons.
Because his mind is too open and free, the speaker misunderstands a lime-tree bower’s role as a jail. “Nuns Fret Not” expresses this concern about a too free mind. It shows that any space can become a prison if it is too libertarian. Analyzing the misinterpretation in “Nuns Fret Not”, we learn a lot about reality and the power of a free mind to change it. Both works show how negative thoughts can trap one in a prison and how easy it can be to misread one’s reality.
