Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Wordsworth drew inspiration from everyday life

Coleridge dealt with incredible events in such a way as to make them credible.

HOW? Through an alternation of real and unreal

elements

The real elementsThe real elements

to give a sense of credibility to the story without weakening the sense of supernatural mystery.

A combination of..

the supernatural Dream-like elements Ancient mariner Mysterious forces Albatross Unearthly creatures

And the commonplace: visual realism The hill The lighthouse The church The sun

Musicality

he makes use of special sounds, words and devices ( alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, internal rhyme, unequal lines, repetition…) in order to create the unreal atmosphere of his best work

an archaic languagean archaic language

to make more credible the supernatural and to enrich its language with the use of :

OnomatopoeiaAlliterationsrefined examples of chiasmus repetitions.

FANCY and IMAGINATION

in part due to his studies in German philosophy

Against empiricismThe creative mind is capable of

recreating the world of sensesKant, Fichte and Shelling

IMAGINATIONIMAGINATION

divided into 2 types:

PRIMARY

SECONDARY

PrimaryPrimary

It is common to all human beings Through it we perceive the world around

us it works through our senses but it goes beyond the simple perception

of objects it enables man to form concepts to join the world of thought with the world

of things

Secondary ImaginationSecondary Imagination is the poetic vision It dissolves in order to re-create new

worlds, something completely different, to rise above the data of experience.

During a state of ecstasy, images do not appear isolated, but associated according to laws of their own, which have nothing to do with the data of experience.

The mind creates a new reality which has only a superficial relationship with the material one.

What’s a poem ?What’s a poem ?

not a reproduction of things existing in the objective world

but but a new world regulated by its own laws and

with an independent existence. the vision of the world is always original

and unique since the mind doesn’t reproduce or imitate the natural world, but uses new categories of thought.

FancyFancy

It is inferior to Imagination it is a kind of mechanical and logical

faculty which enables a poet to associate metaphors, similes and other poetical devices.

W. and C. despise fancy and exalt Imagination.

For Wordsworth Imagination modifies the data of experience ( through recollection in tranquillity , half create)

for Coleridge Imagination transcends the data of experience and “create”.

SUPERNATURALSUPERNATURAL

He was attracted by the mystery behind the world of appearances

the supernatural becomes a metaphor for human experiences which the material world alone can not represent

to express this metaphor he uses the language of images.

In “ The rhyme of the Ancient In “ The rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” we have:Mariner” we have: the image of the voyage the albatross the strange creature of the sea the phenomena of the ocean combined with : Neo-Platonic speculations on the existence of

tutelary spirits of nature and legends The result was an association of general

ideas with images of myth

The sense of Mystery is The sense of Mystery is introduced byintroduced by

the Mariner himself with : his strange intrusion in the wedding feast his appearance ( long grey beard, skinny hand,

glittering eyes..) his way of speaking full of archaism which brings

back in time, in an imaginary past The albatross: it comes from nowhere and both alive or

death, it is always accompanied by strange phenomena

medieval and oriental superstitions

the albatross is a mystic bird and killing it is a sacrilege and needs punishing

a spectre ship approaches with 2 ghosts on board Death, a skeleton, and Life-in-Death

the presence of unnatural creature: sea monsters, spirits, angels..

the description of unnatural events: the ship moves without wind and noise, it is manoeuvred by a crew of dead people…

NATURENATURE

Coleridge and Wordsworth distinguished clearly their tasks in

“ “ natural”natural” “ “ supernatural”supernatural” a tendency towards the real a tendency towards the transcendental With a perfect balance they expressed the

tension between the real and the visionary which

W. resolved in favour of nature C. in favour of supernatural.

Coleridge doesn’t find consolation Coleridge doesn’t find consolation and happiness in natureand happiness in naturethe contemplation of nature was always

accompanied by the awareness of the presence of the ideal in the real.

his Christian faith did not allow him to identify nature with the Divine ( W’s Pantheism).

The material world is the projection of the “real” world of ideas.

STYLESTYLE

he adopted the form , metre and the diction of traditional balladstraditional ballads but modified it by :

using the four-stanza rhyming ABCB as well as using the four-stanza rhyming ABCB as well as stanzas of five or six lines either at moments stanzas of five or six lines either at moments of particular narrative tension or in order to of particular narrative tension or in order to enrich the emotional texture of the poemenrich the emotional texture of the poem

varying the number of syllables in the line, varying the number of syllables in the line, although maintaining the four/three stress although maintaining the four/three stress pattern.pattern.

In doing so ..In doing so ..

The ballad acquired more freedom of movement and proved the possibility to balance the tradition with the innovation and originality of the poet as an individual poet.

What’s a Ballad?

Dialogue + narration4-line stanzaRepetitions, allitterations, internal rhymeThe theme of travel and wanderingSupernatural elementsBUTBUTNo moralNo didactic aim -no story

the explanatory notes complicate, rather than clarify, the poem as a

whole there are times that they explain some

unarticulated action there are also times that they interpret the

material of the poem in a way that seems odd or irrelevant to the poem itself.

For instance: in Part II, we find a note regarding the spirit that

followed the ship nine fathoms deep: “one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted.”

What might Coleridge mean by introducing such figures into the poem ? that the verse itself should be interpreted through them?

All these elements of gothic origin and the supernatural elements leave the poem open to many interpretations:

It is simply a dream caused by It is simply a dream caused by opium:opium:

a first sense of freedom soon followed by anguish and fear

OR

An abnormal psychology of an old sailor survived to a shipwreck giving his personal version of it

it is an allegory of lifeit is an allegory of life

the crew represents mankindmankind the albatross the pact of Lovepact of Love that

should unite all God’s creatures the ship a microcosma microcosm in which the

evil deed of a single person falls on others

it is a moral parable of a manit is a moral parable of a man

from the original sinoriginal sin ( the killing) through punishmentpunishment ( isolation) repentancerepentance ( the blessing of the

water snakes) penitencepenitence ( the obsessive repetition

of the story) to his final redemption.redemption.

Reason versus imaginationReason versus imagination

rationality rationality ( sunlight, under which the main bad events of the poem take place)

irrationalityirrationality ( moonlight, when the main good event occur)

Sunlight represents the power of reason

Moonlight represents the power of Imagination)

SUN versus MOONSUN versus MOON

symbolic language In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” the

sun and the moon represent also two sides of the Christian God

the sun as a symbol of God, his power and his authority

the sun = “God’s own head” (97) Bad things happen to the crew during the

day = the Christian conception of a vengeful God.

The Moon

it often symbolizes God, but with a more positive connotations

The Moon = the benevolent God. Smooth sailing and calm weather occur at

night, by the light of the moon. For example, the mariner’s curse lifts and

he returns home by moonlight. Similarly, “Frost at Midnight” also praises

the moon as it illuminates all around on a winter evening and spurs the speaker to great thought.

Artistic reading

Artist = to search true and knowledgePainful experiences – left aloneSaved by the power of imagination =

being able to see beauty in the sea snakes

Once back in the ordinary world , his fuction as a prophet

a commentary on the ways in which people interpret the lessons of the past the past is simply unknowable the past is simply unknowable

HOW? HOW? with elaborate symbolism that cannot be

deciphered in a definitive way with side notes that offer a highly theoretical

spiritual-scientific interpretation Coleridge creates tension between the

ambiguous poem and the unambiguous-but-ridiculous notes, exposing a gulf between the “old” poem and the “new” attempt to understand it.

The message would be that, though certain moral lessons from the past are comprehensible —”he liveth best who loveth best” - other aspects are less easily grasped

moralmoral

The Mariner kills the Albatross in bad faith, subjecting himself to the hostility of the forces that govern the universe (the spirits beneath the sea and the horrible Life-in-Death).

After earning his curse, the Mariner is able to regain his ability to pray, realizing that the monsters around him are beautiful in God’s eyes and that he should love them as he should have loved the Albatross.