Imaginative journeys: Relating Colerdige's "Frost at Midnight" to Richard Kelly's film "Donnie Darko". (Australian HSC essay - recieved 98%)

SYNOPSIS OF "DONNIE DARKO" Donnie Darko is a troubled schizophrenic teenager who lives in the picturesque American suburb of Middlesex. When an unidentified giant aeroplane engine crashes into his room, a chain of mysterious events is triggered. Donnie is visited in his sleep by a giant bunny called Frank, god-like prophet who has a gunshot wound over his eye, encourages him to sleepwalk, and consequently, saves Donnie from the jet engine, telling him that the …

…city/country, preceptor/universal teacher. This outlines his central theme: that everything his child learns will come from God, as all things do. By concluding the poem with the image of "silent icicles, quietly shining to the quiet moon", he concludes on a soft, reflective note (the moon does not emanate light, it merely reflects) which suits his abstruser musings. Further, the use of the word "shining" reinforces this tone of hope, joy and renewal.