WILLIAM BLAKE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH SAMUEL T COLERIDGE Samuel

• WILLIAM BLAKE • WILLIAM WORDSWORTH • SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge – pg. 684 -685 • “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” – pg. 685 -709 • “Kubla Kahn” – pg. 710 -712

Overview of Romantic Literature • The romantic period is an age of poetry. • Wordsworth and Coleridge are the most representative writers. • They explore new theories and innovative techniques in versification. • They believe that poetry could purify individual souls and society.

• The key words of English Romanticism are nature and imagination. • Romantics argue that poetry should be free from all rules.

• The poets who chose the Romantic style at this time investigated many topics. • They wrote of time, love, death, art, and religion among other topics. • One topic in particular was a favorite among the Romantics - nature.

• As long as there have been poets, there have been poems about nature, but the nature poems of the Romantics are somehow different from the ones that came before. • These poems were not quaint, predictable, oversimplified glorifications of nature on a purely observational level.

• The poems of the Romantics were designed to communicate Nature’s transformative power. • Nature is portrayed as omnipresent and capable of altering human perception and perspective. • The settings of these poems, therefore, are picturesque and exotic.

ORDINARY = EXTRAORDINARY The ability to describe ordinary events as extraordinary is a characteristic of Romantic literature.

• Romantic poetry valued individual experience. • Rationalism was replaced by a trust in one’s emotions. • Romanticism rejects the social “us” and embraces the “me”. • Intuitions, feelings, and emotions ruled. • Man’s heart was a more valued guide than his head. • Another characteristic of Romantic poetry is this enlightenment by emotion.

• The Romantics searched for personal experiences and strove to communicate their power in meaningful ways. • To achieve this, Romantic writers employed simple and direct language. • This was another way to reject the Neoclassical movement that hoped to emulate the ancient writers in lofty styles and language.

• Think of it this way… our most personal conversations, our most private, do not need elevated language to impress or ring true. • This simple language is another Romantic characteristic.

Another characteristic of Romantic literature is the inclusion of supernatural elements. • Perhaps, for the Romantics, Nature was so powerful that it could not be contained. • Nature takes on a mysterious, sometimes even scary quality in literature of the Romantics. • Supernatural elements play a large part in these works.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Coleridge saw the poet as a man of great integrity as well as special gifts, producing poems which would offer profound insights into man’s imaginative, psychological, and ultimately, moral being.

• Poets are born and not made. • Poems should be judged only according to their own merit and not according to any established precept or precedent.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Coleridge was born into a clergyman’s family in 1772. • He was a great genius. • At the age of six, he had read the Bible, Robinson Crusoe, and Arabian Nights. • He was a mentally precocious boy, full of fantasy and dreams in his mind. • During his Cambridge years, he made friends with Charles Lamb, the great essayist of English Romanticism.

Campus life bored him. He ran away from the university and enlisted in the army but was discharged after a few months. He returned to Cambridge.

He joined Robert Southey in a utopian plan of establishing an ideal democratic community (named Pantisocracy) in America. The plan resulted in nothing but his marriage to Sara Fricker, which turned out to be an unhappy marriage.

• In 1798 Coleridge traveled to Germany with Wordsworth and began to study German philosophy. • Upon Coleridge’s return to England, he became addicted to opium, which he used as a pain reliever.

• Coleridge quarreled seriously with Wordsworth in 1810. • Though they reconciled later, their friendship was never as close. • In Coleridge’s later years, he became conservative and turned to theology for spiritual comfort.

Comments • Coleridge is a great Romantic poet. • His poetic imagination is unique. • Coleridge is fond of unusual and supernatural things. • Coleridge is one of the first critics to pay close attention to language of poetry. • Coleridge maintained that the true end of poetry is to give pleasure “through the medium of beauty. ”

• Coleridge’s poetry often deals with the mysterious, the supernatural, and the extraordinary. • While Wordsworth looked for the spiritual in everyday subjects, Coleridge wanted to give the supernatural a coloring of everyday reality.

Coleridge describes the natural and supernatural events that occur during an adventurous voyage. The events of the poem take place in an eerie, ghostly atmosphere, and the reader often feels he is moving from a real to an unreal world and back again.

• The poem is famous for its beautiful cadence (tempo, rhythm, pace, beat) and wonderful imagery. • The combination of the natural and supernatural, the ordinary and extraordinary makes it one of the masterpieces of Romantic poetry.

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” • Coleridge’s contribution to Lyrical Ballads. • The poem tells a strange story in ballad meter. • Three guests are on their way to a wedding party when an ancient mariner stopped one of them. • The mariner tells of his adventures on the sea. • When his ship sails toward the South Pole, an albatross comes through the snow-fog and alights on the rigging.

The mariner shoots at the albatross quite thoughtlessly. Then misfortune befalls. The whole crew, with the exception of the old mariner, die of thirst as punishment for the cruel act. The spell breaks only when the mariner repents his cruelty.

Literary Analysis • Define the following (pg. 685): Ø alliteration—the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginnings of words: v. EX: “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew…” Ø consonance—the repetition of similar final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with dissimilar vowel sounds v. EX: “a frightful fiend / Doth close behind…” BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY LINES WITH BOTH ALLITERATION AND CONSONANCE

Literary Analysis Øassonance—the repetition of a vowel sound in stressed syllables with dissimilar consonant sounds: v. EX: “The western wave was all aflame. ” Øinternal rhyme—the use of rhymes within a poetic line v. EX: “With heavy thump, a lifeless lump…” BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY LINES WITH BOTH ASSONANCE AND INTERNAL RHYME

NOTES – Part 1 q. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner relates the events experienced by a mariner on a long sea voyage. q The Mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to recite his story. q. The setting for the wedding is most likely a medieval town.

NOTES – Part 1 q. The wedding guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience and fear to fascination as the Mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style. q. Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create either a sense of danger, of the supernatural or serenity, depending on the mood of each of the different parts of the poem.

NOTES – Part 1 Ø The Mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Ø Despite initial good fortune, the ship is driven south off course by a storm and eventually reaches Antarctica.

NOTES – Part 1 Ø An albatross appears and leads the ship out of the Antarctic, but even as the albatross is praised by the ship's crew, the Mariner shoots the bird - (with my cross-bow / I shot the albatross). Ø The albatross initially symbolizes good luck.

NOTES – Part 1 01. Theme: the sanctity of all wild creatures 02. The mariner maintains a tone of fresh horror and inspires a sense of awe as he retells his tale. 03. Symbolism of choosing a wedding: ØMariner’s choices = break with nature and society (Coleridge’s warning about isolation and guilt) VS. ØWedding = unity and community

NOTES – Part 1 04. Initially, the albatross symbolizes luck. (pg. 690) 05. As the bird is referred to as “pious, ” this is an indication of its innocence, even to a point of holiness. 06. Carelessly, the mariner shot the bird with his crossbow.

Albatross • A type of great, white sea bird native to the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. • Since the publication of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, " "albatross" has also come to mean "a constant, worrisome burden" or "an obstacle to success. "

NOTES – Part 1 Shooting the albatross: Ø a gratuitous act Ø uncalled for, unjustified, unnecessary Ø Senseless act: v. The motive is of no concern because there really isn’t a motive. v. The person who performs the deed matters because this deed/choice will transform his life. Isolation: The mariner will be set apart from his crew.

NOTES – Part 1 v. This unprovoked act places the mariner in the genealogy of literary figures who become wanderers. v. The mariner becomes a man with a chain, a rule breaker. “The mariner is a killer. ” “The mariner is an outcast. ”

NOTES – Part 2 Ø The crew is angry with the Mariner, believing the albatross brought the South Wind that led them out of the Antarctic - (Ah, wretch, said they / the bird to slay / that made the breeze to blow). Ø However, the sailors change their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears: ('Twas right, said they, such birds to slay / that bring the fog and mist).

NOTES – Part 2 Ø The crime arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow. “ Ø The south wind, which had initially led them from the land of ice, now sends the ship into uncharted waters, where it is becalmed. Ø What uncharted waters are you traveling?

NOTES – Part 2 Ø Becalmed does not have a pleasant connotation. ØBecalmed means the ship is at a standstill and is not moving.

NOTES – Part 2 Ø The sound devices Coleridge uses in this particular section (lines 107122) mirror the ship’s condition. Ø The same words are used again and again. Ø This symbolizes the fact that the ship is not moving. Lines 115 -122 Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.

NOTES – Part 2 Ø A comparison can be made: Ship does not move = Humans who do not move § If this is the case, then both the ship and humans become stagnant. § For humans, this means no growth (spiritually, mentally, physically, etc. ). § This mirrors what is happening with the ancient mariner at this point in his “journey” (life).

NOTES – Part 2 Ø The sailors change their minds again and blame the Mariner for the torment of their thirst.

NOTES – Part 2 Ø In anger, the crew forces the Mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret. Ø Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks / Had I from old and young! / Instead of the cross, the albatross / About my neck was hung.

NOTES – Part 2 ØThe dead albatross now symbolizes guilt.

NOTES – Part 3 Ø Coleridge uses several words repetitively at the beginning of part 3. Ø He does this to create

NOTES – Part 3 Ø In an eerie passage, the ship encounters a ghostly vessel.

NOTES – Part 3 Ø On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death" (a deathly-pale woman), who are playing dice for the souls of the crew.

NOTES – Part 3 Ø The symbolism: Ø The dice game suggests that universal forces are not guided by reason.

NOTES – Part 3 With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and Life-in-Death the life of the Mariner, a prize she considers more valuable.

NOTES – Part 3 Ø Her name (Lifein-Death) is a clue as to the Mariner's fate. Ø He will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the albatross.

NOTES – Part 3 ØOne by one all of the crew members die, but the Mariner lives on.

NOTES – Part 4 ØThe wedding guest was fearful the mariner was just an apparition and that the mariner were a ghost of one of the dead sailors.

NOTES – Part 4 The mariner expresses the feeling of isolation he experienced on the ship.

NOTES – Part 4 ØAll the men died. ØThe Mariner lived on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remained on their faces.

NOTES – Part 4 ØAll the mariner could see were the slimy creatures of the sea and the dead men who lay upon the deck of the ship. ØThere is no place and no one for the mariner to turn to for comfort.

NOTES – Part 4 ØThe mariner tried to pray. ØIt seemed a wicked spirit stopped him.

NOTES – Part 4 ØAll that the mariner can see is the sky, the sea, and dead men all around him. ØHe loses hope and falls into a state of despair.

NOTES – Part 4 Ø Eventually, the Mariner's curse is lifted when he sees sea creatures swimming in the water. Ø Watching the creatures brought him unexplainable joy, and he blessed them without meaning to.

NOTES – Part 4 Ø Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem (Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs / upon the slimy sea), he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them (a spring of love gush'd from my heart and I bless'd them unaware).

NOTES – Part 4 Ø Suddenly, as the mariner manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and he is partially rid of his guilt.

NOTES – Part 4 Ø When the mariner begins to feel love for the creatures of the deep, he reconnects with nature. Ø The albatross, a symbol of the mariner’s rejection of nature, falls away.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The mariner dreams of rain. Ø When he awakens, it begins to rain.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The mariner feels light and unburdened, as if a weight has been lifted. Ø Symbolism: the albatross had fallen from his neck because the mariner began to repent

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The mariner hears the sound of the wind and sees the aurora australis, or southern lights.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The rain continues. Ø The rain is symbolic because it represents a washing away of sin.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and steer the ship back home.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The dead sailors arose and sailed the ship without speaking. Ø They sang heavenly music, and the ship's sails continued when they had stopped.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The wedding guest is frightened by the ancient mariner’s tale. Ø The mariner calms the wedding guest and reassures him that the dead men were inhabited by angelic spirits.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø At dawn, the sailors stopped working. Ø The sweet sounds of their souls came from their mouths.

NOTES – Part 5 Ø The ship continued to sail even without a breeze blowing. Lines 374 -376 Yet never a breeze did breathe; Slowly and smoothly went the ship, Moved onward from beneath.

NOTES – Part 5 Once the ship reached the equator again, the ship jolted, causing the Ancient Mariner to fall unconscious.

NOTES – Part 5 v. In his swoon, he heard two voices discussing his fate. v. They said he would continue to be punished for killing the Albatross, who was loved by a spirit.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø The two spirit voices continue discussing the mariner and the progress of the ship. Ø The ship is traveling so quickly the mariner must be in a trance; otherwise, he could not have withstood the fast pace.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø When the Ancient Mariner awoke, the dead sailors were grouped together, all cursing him with their eyes once again. Ø His penance begins anew. Ø Symbolism: facing fears, facing one’s own demons Ø Coleridge, as an addict, might have been facing himself and his addiction again and again, without any relief from suffering.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø Suddenly, however, the sailors disappear. Ø The Ancient Mariner was not relieved, because he realized that he was doomed to be haunted by them forever.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø Lines 446 -451 Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. Ø Symbolism: Ø The demons that follow each of us? Ø The things that frighten us are always close on our heels? Ø Our innermost fears?

NOTES – Part 6 Ø A breeze begins to blow. Ø The wind begins to stir (winds of change? ). Ø There is a lightening of the mood, for both the reader and the mariner.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø The breeze appears to blow on only the mariner and his ship. Ø Meaning: v. When we feel extreme joy over what appers to be good luck and blessings that flow over us and us alone, we might have the same emotions the mariner felt. Ø The mariner can see his own country.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø When the mariner sees his own country, he is returning to what he knows, what he is familiar with, and what he understands. Ø The equivalent for us might be found in the story of the Prodigal Son.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø We may stray and become thrown off course by the winds of change and the winds of time, but we find comfort and security in the familiar. Ø Knowing that we can “return home” is a comforting thought. Ø But can we return?

NOTES – Part 6 Ø This brings up a concept the Romantics continually revisited in their poetry: a return to innocence.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø Once “soiled, ” either by our actions or by the actions of others, can we ever truly return to a state of pure innocence?

NOTES – Part 6 Ø The mariner sees strange forms as the ship drifts toward the harbor. Ø The angelic spirits that had inhabited the bodies of the dead men leave. Ø Their spirits are wreathed in holy light, and they are angelic in appearance.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø The mariner hears the Pilot’s boat approaching the ship. Ø He can hear the Pilot’s voice, also. Ø The Pilot’s boy is with the Pilot.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø The mariner hears the Hermit. Ø The mariner believes the Hermit can help him absolve himself of sin.

NOTES – Part 6 Ø Coleridge’s use of sound devices in the lines of poetry significantly decreases in this section. Ø Why? Ø This section is less surreal than the supernatural journey. Ø As the mariner nears home, there is less of a dream like quality about the events.

NOTES – Part 7 Ø The Hermit, the Pilot, and the Pilot’s boy approach the ship. Ø As they approach, the water rumbles and the ship begins to sink.

NOTES – Part 7 Ø The mariner is floating in the water when he is saved by the Pilot. Ø The ship had been caught in a whirlpool. Ø Symbolism: the whirlwinds/whirlpools of life

NOTES – Part 7 Ø The hermit and the pilot pull the mariner from the water. Ø They think he is dead, but when the mariner opens his mouth, the pilot has a fit.

NOTES – Part 7 Ø The hermit prays, and the Mariner picks up the oars to row. Ø The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs, thinking the Mariner is the devil, and says, "The Devil knows how to row. "

NOTES – Part 7 Ø The Hermit on the mainland had seen the approaching ship, and had come to meet it with a Pilot and the Pilot’s boy in a boat. Ø This Hermit may have been a priest who took a vow of isolation.

Hermit Ø A recluse who prays three times a day and lives in communion with nature in the woods.

NOTES – Part 7 Ø The Hermit accompanies the Pilot and the Pilot's boy on the small boat because "he loves to talk with mariners / from a far countree. “

The Hermit Ø The Ancient Mariner reveres the Hermit as a righteous and holy man, and asks him to absolve him of his sin. Ø The Hermit is the first person to whom the Ancient Mariner is compelled to tell his tale.

NOTES – Part 7 Ø As penance for shooting the albatross, the Mariner is forced to wander the earth and tell his story, and teach a lesson to those he meets:

The Lesson • He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. • The agony returns, and the ancient mariner’s heart burns until he tells his story.

• The poem may have been inspired by the legend of the Wandering Jew, who was forced to wander the Earth until Judgment Day, for taunting Jesus on the day of the Crucifixion. • Having shot the albatross, the Mariner is forced to wear the bird about his neck as a symbol of guilt. • Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung. • This supports the idea of the Wandering Jew, who is branded with a cross as a symbol of guilt.

• It is also thought that Coleridge, a known user of opium, could have been under the drug's effects when he wrote some of the stranger parts of the poem, especially the Voices of The Spirits communicating with each other. • "About, about, in reel and rout / The death-fires danced at night. "

• The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. • Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. • In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), he replaced many of the archaic words.