Coleridge initiates with the phrase “The frost performs its secret ministry, unhelped by any wind” (line 1). The frost makes Coleridge realise how beautiful nature is and he speculates that the frost is a secret ministry, because it appears from nowhere in the night, sent by God to make human kind appreciate the beauty of nature. His inmates are sleeping and he is enjoying the peace and quiet with his son. The only subtle sound is a smouldering fire.
In the second stanza, he is reminiscing about his childhood and how he felt imprisoned in school (gazed upon the bars). He speaks of a fluttering stranger (line 26), which seems to indicate that not that person is fluttering, but his eyelids are. His eyes are unclosed, because he is daydreaming, but soon he actually falls asleep and thinks about his teacher, who he detests. He describes the anticipation of being able to go outside again only by hearing the bells of the old church-tower, since he is only looking out the window and waiting for the doors to open for anybody to pick him up and take him outside.
In the next stanza, he speaks passionately about his infant son. Coleridge hopes that he will grow up in the countryside amid the trees, unlike Coleridge, who felt like cattle (line 52), trapped between cloisters and the only nature he saw was when he looked up to the sky. The eternal language he mentions in line 60 is nature and Coleridge believes that nature will teach his son more than Coleridge himself was taught in school.
In the last stanza, the secret ministry is mentioned again and the poem comes to a full circle with the peace and quiet returning.
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