Frosty Scenes

In class, we had briefly discussed the idea of "secret ministry" that I, without having read the poem, began to gather my own thoughts about. After reading only the first line, "The Frost performs its secret ministry,/ Unhelp'd by any wind," I had concluded, for myself and at the time at least, that ministry was an action, such as teaching or advising (ll 1-2). Ministers advise patrons, in religious, governmental and authoritative contexts. I didn't completely agree with that definition however, so I kept thinking. I liked ministry as an action, but more as a mediator, which is similar to what the class came up with. So now, I had the frost mediating between weather, Mother Nature if you will, and something in the scene of the poem, which is presumably a window. I decided I liked that explanation the best, the frost was quietly and unsuspectingly mediating between the cold and the window, which held the heat from inside the house.

Later in the poem, "secret ministry" is used again. "Or whether the secret ministry of cold/ Shall hang them up in silent icicles," is the second usage of this phrase (ll. 77-78). Ministry in this use, I think, still refers to mediating, only this time it is the cold mediating between the weather and the eaves that have dropped, and this mediation may lead to icicles. Again, the formation happens quietly, and it's not a process that can be watched or followed, it occurs in secret.

I like Coleridge's fusion of the elements of nature and the physical world within the poem. I think his use of "secret ministry" is a great way to demonstrate the interaction that happens between the ethereal nature and the present environment.