COLERDIGE

romantic elements:-ballads structure and themes: He adopted the rhythm and the rhyme patterns of the medieval ballads - medieval settings ideal for the atmosphere of some of his poems mystery and the supernatural: some of his poems are unfinished which increases their sense of mystery nature: it plays an important part in his poems, he doesnt find in nature happiness and consolation, - exoticism: some poems are set in distant places and times, - music He makes use of special sounds, words and devices in order to create unreal atmosphere in his poems.

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

It is well organized in a progression of events resulting from a sequence of causes and effects and leading it to an acceptable conclusion. In this poem the alternation of real and unreal elements confers a degree of credibility on the narrative without weakening the sense of horror and supernatural mystery it conveys to the reader. This unreal, fantastic and nightmarish word provides the ideal setting for the supernatural elements and events spread throughout the poem such as: 1) the sense of mystery introduced: by the mariner himself with his sudden, strange intrusion upon the wedding feast, his appearance and his way of speaking; by the albatross 2) the hint at medieval and oriental superstitions: the albatross is a mystical bird whose killing is a form of sacrilege and must be punished 3) the hint at the medieval Dance Macabre 4) the presence of supernatural creature 5) the description of unnatural events all these elements leave the poem open to many interpretations: - the poem is simply a dream induced by opium. it is only a poem about the abnormal psychology of a superstitious old sailor it is an allegory of life where the crew represents mankind, the albatross the pact of love that should unite all Gods creatures and the ship a microcosm it is a moral parable of man, from his original sin, through punishment, repentance and penitence, to his final redemption. it might symbolized the contrast between rationality and irrationality. The former identified with sunlight and the latter with moonlight; sunlight would represent the power of reason and moonlight would represent the power of imagination. Fancy and imagination Coleridges interest in the imagination was derived from his studies in German philosophy-he even worked out a theory of his own, according to Coleridge the imagination is divided into 2 types :primary and secondary. 1) is the faculty by which we perceived the world around us. It works through our senses and is common it all human beings. 2) it is the poetic vision, the faculty that a poet has to idealize and unify during a state of ecstasy images do not appear isolated but associated according to

laws of their own. Imagination is contrasted with fancy which is inferior to it since it is a kind of mechanical and logical faculty which enables a poet to aggregate and associate metaphors, similes and other poetical devices.

the rime of the ancient mariner

Real elements: -the opening setting: a wedding feast, - there are hints at the precise position of the sun in the sky according to the hemisphere in which the skip is sailing, - the weather suddenly changes, - there are hints at the mariners narrative country, - at boat appears whit a pilot who saves the mariner from shipwreck. Unreal elements: - nature is perceived as deformed and intensified through the memory of past fears and horrors as - the ice glistens with strange colours , - the sun looks bloody and the moon extraordinarily white, the sea is either slimy or burning with strange colours. - the wind becomes noiseless and motionless although still pushing the ship on. Wordsworth and Coleridge Wordsworth and Coleridge are the two most important poets of the first English romantic period. They worked together to create the collection Lyrical Ballads, and they have some different point of view about poetry, nature and imagination. Imagination: 1. Wordsworth believes that imagination is used to enrich simple ideas in tranquillity. Men has this faculties before the birth and they lost it growing up; 2. Coleridge divides it into primary and secondary, and it is the capacity of perceive the world around us (common to all people) and then the capacity of order those memories and enrich them with supernatural. Nature: 1. Wordsworth feels nature as full of life, as it would be a part of us, in order to a Pantheistic vision; nature is opposed to town, it is a source of feelings and it is pervaded by an active force; 2. Coleridge, instead, sees the nature as the One Life (a divine power), and all his description of landscapes or natural elements, are endowed with a deeper symbolic meaning. Poetry: 1. Wordsworth says the poetry is a spontaneous expression of feelings; it is emotion recollected in tranquillity. The poet takes inspiration from rustic life, and then, he combines the memory of those emotions, with the use of imagination. 2. Coleridge believes that poetry is a product of unconscious and it creates a kind of ecstasy, reproduced with the use of memory and the adding of supernatural elements.