He creates a new and exotic beauty from the images stored in his imagination. The supernatural, then, is a superior force, both spiritual and divine, that has power over the physical universe to change the nature of created things, either in themselves or in their modes of action, and either directly through himself or indirectly through angels or demons or departed spirits.Ĭoleridge is thoroughly romantic in this conception of the supernatural. Our notion of his being, then since we are so deeply rooted in the physical can only be measured with material images, which we provided with our imaginations and our dreams. We know he exists but, being beyond the grasp of our senses we can only apprehend him and not comprehend him. The Creator of the physical universe is above nature and is spiritual and imaterial. The natural acts in accordance with physical laws, and departures from these laws are physically impossible, but they are not absolutely impossible for the natural, being created, depends upon the power and the will of its creator.
The natural, we can know and understand because it is material, physical- but the supernatural is beyond the grasp of the physical senses- it is imaterial, spiritual. In fact a thing is apprehended when we can know its existence without understanding it. Contrasted with the natural, the supernatural is apprehended as opposed to comprehended. The etymology of the word, however, helps us in no way to understand the connotation of the word in literature. The word comes from the Latin super meaning above and naturo meaning nature.
The poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge is characterized by the supernatural.
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