What is Life?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's What is Life?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s What is Life? is a compact yet profoundly meditative poem that grapples with the fundamental question of existence. Composed during the Romantic era—a period marked by intense introspection, a fascination with the sublime, and a rejection of Enlightenment rationalism—the poem encapsulates the philosophical and metaphysical concerns that preoccupied Coleridge throughout his career. Through its probing questions, vivid imagery, and paradoxical structure, What is Life? invites readers into a contemplative space where the boundaries between perception and reality, life and death, and light and darkness blur. This essay will explore the poem’s historical and intellectual context, its use of literary devices, its thematic preoccupations, and its enduring emotional resonance.

Historical and Intellectual Context

To fully appreciate What is Life?, one must situate it within the broader currents of Romantic thought and Coleridge’s personal philosophical engagements. The late 18th and early 19th centuries witnessed a shift from the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason and empirical knowledge to a deeper exploration of subjective experience, emotion, and the mysteries of existence. Coleridge, along with his contemporary William Wordsworth, was at the forefront of this movement, seeking to reconcile the material and the spiritual, the finite and the infinite.

Coleridge was deeply influenced by German idealism, particularly the works of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schelling, who argued that reality is shaped by consciousness rather than being an objective, external given. This philosophical stance is evident in What is Life?, where Coleridge questions whether life is merely a construct of perception ("An absolute self—an element ungrounded") or something more transcendent. Additionally, his lifelong struggles with opium addiction and existential despair infuse the poem with a sense of urgency and personal inquiry, making it not just an abstract meditation but a deeply felt existential cry.

Literary Devices and Structure

Despite its brevity, What is Life? is rich in literary techniques that enhance its philosophical depth. The poem is structured as a series of rhetorical questions, a device that immediately engages the reader in the poet’s inquiry rather than presenting definitive answers. This interrogative mode mirrors the Socratic method, encouraging active contemplation rather than passive reception.

One of the most striking aspects of the poem is its use of light and darkness as central metaphors. Coleridge asks whether life resembles "what once was deem’d of light," suggesting that human understanding of existence is akin to glimpsing an overwhelming radiance that cannot be fully comprehended. The phrase "Too ample in itself for human sight" evokes the sublime—an aesthetic category that Romantic poets frequently employed to describe experiences so vast or powerful that they defy rational comprehension. The encroachment of darkness, which "makes" the colors and shades of life, introduces a paradoxical idea: that perception itself is shaped by limitation, by the interplay between illumination and obscurity.

Another notable device is the oxymoronic phrase "war-embrace of wrestling life and death," which encapsulates the poem’s central tension. Life and death are not presented as binary opposites but as entwined forces in a dynamic struggle. This formulation echoes Coleridge’s broader interest in polarity—a concept he borrowed from Schelling, which posits that reality is constituted by the interplay of opposing principles.

Themes: Consciousness, Mortality, and the Nature of Being

At its core, What is Life? is an exploration of consciousness and its relationship to existence. The line "Is very life by consciousness unbounded?" suggests that life, as experienced, is defined by the limits (or lack thereof) of human awareness. This aligns with Romanticism’s preoccupation with the mind’s role in shaping reality—a theme Coleridge explored more extensively in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, where perception and imagination dictate the contours of experience.

The poem also engages with the inevitability of mortality. The "thoughts, pains, joys of mortal breath" are transient, caught in the ceaseless struggle between vitality and dissolution. Yet, rather than presenting this as a bleak truth, Coleridge frames it as a "war-embrace"—a term that suggests both conflict and intimacy. There is a tragic beauty in this formulation, as it acknowledges the inseparability of life and death, much like the interdependence of light and shadow in visual perception.

Furthermore, the poem touches upon the idea of life as an "absolute self—an element ungrounded," which can be interpreted through the lens of idealism. If life is "ungrounded," it lacks a fixed, objective foundation; instead, it is perpetually constructed through subjective experience. This notion resonates with contemporary existentialist thought, particularly the idea that existence precedes essence—that meaning is not inherent but created through lived experience.

Comparative Readings and Philosophical Underpinnings

What is Life? can be fruitfully compared to other Romantic meditations on existence, such as Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality or Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Mont Blanc. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth grapples with the limitations of human perception, though he arrives at a more optimistic conclusion, suggesting that traces of pre-existential glory remain in childhood. Shelley, by contrast, adopts a more skeptical stance, questioning whether the sublime power of nature reflects any inherent meaning or is merely an indifferent force. Coleridge’s poem occupies a middle ground—neither wholly despairing nor consolatory, but deeply ambivalent.

Philosophically, the poem’s inquiry into the nature of being aligns with Martin Heidegger’s later explorations of Dasein (being-there) in Being and Time. Heidegger argues that human existence is fundamentally characterized by questioning its own nature—a premise that Coleridge’s poem enacts through its relentless interrogation. Similarly, the emphasis on consciousness as constitutive of reality anticipates phenomenological approaches, such as those of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who argue that perception is not passive reception but active engagement with the world.

Emotional Impact and Contemporary Relevance

Despite its abstract themes, What is Life? retains a powerful emotional immediacy. The poem’s brevity and open-endedness allow readers to project their own existential anxieties onto its framework. In an age increasingly defined by scientific materialism, Coleridge’s insistence on the primacy of consciousness offers a counterpoint, reminding us that lived experience cannot be reduced to mere biological processes.

Moreover, the poem’s engagement with darkness as a shaping force resonates with contemporary discussions of mental health. Coleridge’s own struggles with depression and addiction lend the poem an autobiographical weight, suggesting that the "war-embrace" of life and death is not just a metaphysical abstraction but a lived reality. In this sense, the poem speaks to modern readers who grapple with similar tensions between vitality and despair.

Conclusion

What is Life? is a masterful distillation of Coleridge’s philosophical and poetic concerns. Through its evocative imagery, paradoxical language, and relentless questioning, the poem captures the essence of Romanticism’s existential inquiries. It challenges readers to consider whether life is bounded by perception, whether consciousness constructs reality, and whether existence is fundamentally a struggle between opposing forces.

In an era where the nature of reality is increasingly contested—between technological simulations, artificial intelligence, and ecological crises—Coleridge’s poem remains startlingly relevant. It reminds us that the question "What is life?" is not merely academic but deeply personal, inviting each reader to confront the limits of their own understanding. Ultimately, the poem’s power lies in its refusal to provide easy answers, instead leaving us suspended in the luminous darkness of its inquiry.