Milton Parallels Shelleys Interpretation Paradise Lost Frankenstein STRUCTURE
- Slides: 7
Milton Parallels? Shelley’s Interpretation? (Paradise Lost) (Frankenstein) STRUCTURE: Many critics see the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ as an allegory of some kind of fall, like…… Sin, Punishment, Redemption… Of Adam - …cast into hell? …forbidden fruit? “…slimy things … “I shot the albatross” Slimy sea” “…the very deep did rot…” “…and I had done a hellish thing…” Cain? Of Lucifer - Of Coleridge …opium? “witch’s oils, / … burnt green, and blue and white” Phantasmagoria!
Purely inspirational? Dark gothic? “cursed me with his eye” “poetry gives most pleasure when only generally “Life-in-death” and not perfectly understood" “spectre bark” - Coleridge Many critics maintain, as Christopher Lamb does, that the ‘Ancient Mariner’ is a work of complete and pure imagination. As… No single interpretation seems to fit the entire poem… In essence, it is a very imaginative and unusual piece… Gustav Doré’s Dark Etches…
Just as the Ancient Mariner has to re-tell his Coleridge felt a deep sense of sin, tale, Coleridge for his opium addiction and has to keep on otherwise. returning to this poem and revising it… The poem could be his way of fathoming his feelings. The “strange power” of the Ancient Mariner, as his difficult feelings. “mingled strangely with my fears” “I know that man … must hear me” / “To him my tale I teach” Hence, his sensitivity and saying that the poem should not be analysed…? (“poetry gives most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood“)
“Instead of the cross, the Albatross/ About my neck was hung” “I had killed the bird / That made the breeze to blow” “Hailed it in God’s name” “Christian soul” “Crimson red like Gods own head” - “Hid in mist” - “dungeon-grate” Crew distanced from God “blessed them unawares”
Vs. Some critics maintain that this ballad was an exploration, by Coleridge, into the science vs. spirituality debate: There are many mysterious fantastical images, at the “glittering with itshe“strange He was a point in hiseye” life where was more power” concerned with the rational than the empirical, the “polar spirits” andof“seraph band” this poem was an exploration the former. The latin preface says, “Human cleverness has always sought knowledge of these things, never attained it”.
THE END.
