Lines Written in the Album at Elbingerode - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
/Lines Written in the Album at Elbingerode - Samuel Taylor Coleridge/
Reflections on Majestic Scenery and the Longing for Human Connection
Original Poem (English), line by line (selected excerpt for length):
Note: This poem, sometimes titled Lines, Written in the Album at Elbingerode, in the Hartz Forest, dates to around 1799. Below is a commonly cited version, focusing on the poem’s core thematic passages. For the full text, please consult a complete literary source.
I stood on Brocken’s sovran height, and saw
Woods crowding upon woods, hills over hills,
A surging scene; and only limited
By the blue distance. Heavily my way
Downward I dragged through fir-groves evermore,
Where bright green moss heaves in sepulchral forms
Speckled with sunshine; and, but seldom heard,
The sweet bird’s song became an hollow sound;
And the breeze, murmuring indivisibly,
Preserved its solemn murmur most distinct
From many a note of many a waterfall,
And the brook’s chatter; ’mid whose islet-stones
The dingy kidling with its tinkling bell
Leapt frolicsome, or old romantic goat
Sat, his white beard slow waving. I moved on
In low and languid mood: for I had found
That grandest scenes have but imperfect charms
Where the eye vainly wanders, nor beholds
One spot with which the heart associates
Holy remembrances of child or friend,
Or gentle maid, or solemn event. But now,
With more composed and thankful mind I wrote
These lines for memory in the Album here,
At Elbingerode—gentle scene that soothes
When lofty prospects fail to stir the heart.
In “Lines Written in the Album at Elbingerode,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge captures the awe of viewing Germany’s Hartz Mountains—particularly the peak of the Brocken—while admitting the oddly hollow feeling such grandeur can evoke if one lacks a personal connection to it. Although he observes the sweep of forests, fir groves, and cascading waters, his mind slips into a ‘languid mood’ because there is no familiar place or cherished companion that endows the scene with deeper meaning.
Coleridge’s poem underscores a Romantic paradox: even the most imposing natural sights may leave the heart unmoved when severed from personal memories and intimacies. Indeed, he yearns for ‘holy remembrances’—childhood recollections, dear friends, or specific events—to root him emotionally. Without them, the spectacle remains abstract. Only when he turns inward, adopting a calmer sense of gratitude, does he reconcile with the setting, finding it gentler and more comforting.
Through this reflection, Coleridge suggests that true appreciation of the sublime interweaves nature’s majesty with the viewer’s emotional landscape. The poem thus points to a hallmark of Romanticism: the fusion of external grandeur and internal feeling. By penning these thoughts in an album at Elbingerode, he immortalizes his own process of introspection and concedes that beauty, on its own, is incomplete without the familiar warmth of memory and close human bonds. (Approx. 220 words)
Key points
1. Coleridge marvels at the Hartz Mountains’ grandeur but feels emotionally distant without personal associations.
2. Romantic themes arise: external beauty alone can feel hollow without internal or relational context.
3. The poem spotlights the nuanced interplay between vast natural scenery and intimate human memory.
4. Writing in the local album becomes a way to ground Coleridge’s transient experience in lasting reflection.
5. Ultimately, the poem affirms that emotional resonance grows when grand vistas unite with cherished personal ties.