A guide to reading the totally screwed up and unreadable poem "Christabel" by Coleridge.

HOW TO READ THE POEM "CHRISTABEL" by Coleridge How the poem withdraws possibility of straight-forward reading 1. finished or fragment 2. Narration 3. Reflexivity: all characters read "Geraldine" A POEM ABOUT THE UNCONSCIOUS 1. Freudian Slips 2. Proposal - the poem slips, moves into dangerous territory and recovers in Part 2. STRUCTURE 1. Patterns of opposition 2. Mediating terms and taboo 3. From Parts to wholes: incomplete - to - complete MaleFemale 1L X 2X L L = Leoline X = Unknown What does Christabel see …

…state before incest taboos, after separation from the mother desire begins. Read the unreadable. The unconscious which is fascinating, is structured like a language and is therefore open to basic decoding. I haven't done any biographical research into Samuel Coleridge, but I'm confident enough to say that he was one messed up guy, who had disguistingly sexualised his mother, or other family members in his unconscious which then moved from the sublime to reality.