The poem has autobiographical interest. The poet invites his readers to have a peep into his past life. They are allowed to catch a few glimpses of his school days. This is what all great romantic poets do. They become personal and take the reader into their confidence from this poem. We learn that the poet's school life was wretched and miserable.
" … For I was reared
In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters dim,
And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.”
The stillness of the night makes the poet meditative and his thoughts go back to the past and he remembers his birth - place, the old church and the sweet sound of its bells which was the only music for the poor people. He also recollects his school - days when the “fluttering stranger” (i.e., the fluttering film) had made him hopeful of the arrival of some friend or relative. On such occasions in the morning he used to go and sit in his class - room with his eyes on his book but his attention was diverted to the expected arrival of some chance - visitor from how:
“But O! how oft,
How oft, at school, with most believing mind,
Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars,
To watch that fluttering stranger! and as oft
With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt
Of my sweet birth - place, and the old Church - tower,
Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang
From morn to evening, all the hot Fair day.”
A very similar description of Coleridge's stay at school has been given by his friend, Charles Lamb, in the essay Christ's Hospital, Five and Thirty Years Ago. The lines in which he describes his looking at the book but his mind outside the class - room and expecting somebody to come are very vivid and realistic:
" And so I brooded all the following morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:
Save if the door half - opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart I leaped up
For still I hoped to see the stranger's face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play - mate when we both were clothed alike!"
All of us have similar experiences of our boyhood days. The face of the stern teacher, the eyes looking with mock - study on the book, the snatching of a hasty glance at the door in the hope of seeing a visitor from home - these are common experiences of the boys who study in schools far away from their homes. The autobiographical touch in the poem adds to its interest and appeal.
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