In Coleridge's poem, "Frost at Midnight," identify the stranger twice referred to, and explain if the poet is speaking of the same stranger both...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was raised in a time when the only
heat provided came from a fire—in this case, in a fireplace that is covered by a grate
(or cover), to keep stray sparks from flying out to start a fire, which was a grave
concern with fireplaces during that time. (Fires started easily and were hard—or
impossible—to battle.)

In his poem, "Frost at Midnight,"
Coleridge is alone in a room (at his cottage), except for the company of his infant son,
sleeping in a cradle next to him: everyone else has gone to bed. It is so quiet, that
the silence disturbs him. He is in a pensive or thoughtful mood, and his eyes are drawn
to the fireplace, where he sees a "film of soot fluttering on the bar of a grate." After
writing the poem, Coleridge attached a note to explain his use of the word "stranger,"
which was common in that day to refer to this film made up of soot: it was traditional
in England to believe that seeing such a thing (superstitiously) announced the arrival
of "an absent friend" and the sooty films were called
"strangers."

The second reference also speaks of
"strangers," but these sooty films were those he often saw in the
fireplace grates at his school. In those days, Coleridge still believed in the power of
the "strangers" in the fireplace. He would watch them at night and they would "lull" him
to sleep—where he would see the familiar sights of home in his dreams; the "strangers"
would be there—accepted by his "believing mind" that seeing the "fluttering" soot would
bring those he loved to him there at school; "presageful" meant that such a sight
(seeing the "strangers") had the power to foretell a coming event ("the arrival of an
absent friend"). So this was when he was still a
"believer."

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How oft, at school, with most believing
mind,

Presageful, have I gazed upon the
bars,

To watch that fluttering
stranger!

The next day when
he should have been paying attention to a "stern preceptor's face," (teacher), he was
only pretending to listen to the lesson for every sound in the room would grab his
attention: he was homesick and desperately wanted "an absent friend" to show up at the
door, most especially his deeply-loved sister:

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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!