For Wednesday: Keats, The Eve of St. Agnes

William Holman Hunt, Romeo and Juliet 

Keats' poem, The Eve of St. Agnes, is like his own version of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner if he married it to a half-remembered version of Romeo and Juliet. In fact, you might think of this poem as Shakespeare as retold by the Romantics, since many elements of Romeo and here (forbidden love, two young lovers, an old nurse maid who assists them, even an old priest who watches over them), but the actual romance, and the background of the story, couldn't be more different than Shakespeare. But it sounds very familiar to those who have read The Rime!

These questions cover the entire poem, but feel free to stop somewhere in the middle if you're having trouble with it.  

Answer TWO of the following, even though I gave you five this time:

Q1: Keats, like Coleridge, tries to create the feel of an ancient poem set in a quasi-medieval world using words like "sooth" and "amort." Yet the poem still sounds utterly different than Coleridge's. What makes the poem 'sound' different? If this poem was a style of music, what would it sound like, based on the rhymes and the style?

Q2: Works of art in the poem are often described as frozen, cold, twisted, pained, and imprisoned, as in "The sculptur'd dead, on each side, seem to freeze,/Emprison'd in black, purgatorial rails" (II, 205) and "The music, yearning like a God in pain" (VII, 206).  Why does Keats portray works of art in such stark terms? What makes artwork 'dead' or 'tortured'? Would Wordsworth agree? 

Q3: The lover, Porphyro, wants to steal into Madeline's chamber and "gaze and worship all unseen" (VIII, 207). Indeed, he spends most of the poem staring and "peeping" at her rather than ever trying to talk with her, or woo her in a more formal manner. Why is this? Why would Keats risk making his lover such a creep? Is this supposed to be a romantic poem of love, or something more sinister?

Q4: When Madeline finally opens her eyes on St. Agnes' Eve and sees Porphyro, why is she disappointed? She clearly was dreaming about him, so why does she tell him, "how chang'd thou art! how pallid, chill, and drear!"(XXXV 214). How does the reality fall short of her dream? 

Q5: Even though this poem lacks a frame narrative, and sounds like it's taking place right in the moment, Keats later tells us, "And they are gone, aye, ages ago/These lovers fled away into the storm" (XLII, 215). Why does he shift the poem into the distant past, and make what seems like a vivid drama an old fairy tale? Is this similar to what Coleridge does with his frame story? 

Paper #1: Romantic Plagiarists due 9.13.21

Of all the mighty world

Of eye, and ear—both what they half create,

And what perceive (Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey)

Wordsworth and Coleridge did everything together—including writing poems. Wordsworth often took credit for Coleridge’s best ideas (the albatross), and Coleridge did the same (the Lyrical Ballads). Keats was a superfan of the Romantic poets and lived in their shadow, possibly even beating them at their own game. All of them were inspired by each other, borrowed from each other, and if we want to be catty, stole from each other as well. That’s what makes Romantic Poetry such a rich and important movement—it speaks with so many of the same ideas in very similar language.

For your first paper, I want you to choose TWO passages from TWO different poems (each poem a different poet) where one seems to steal from the other. You can look up the dates if you want to see who came first, but even publication dates can be tricky, since poets often sit on works for years. So just determine who you think is the ‘original,’ and who you think copies/cribbed from his ideas. Note that a copy doesn’t mean it’s worse…sometimes the cover version is better than the original, after all!

The passages should be SHORT: just a stanza or two. You should first analyze the original stanza and explain what you think it means and how it uses language to achieve this goal. Then, you should examine the ‘copy,’ and discuss what it borrowed (either literally or figuratively), and how it translates the original into its own language. Do you think the second version is better? More poetic? More interesting? More sublime? And what do we gain from reading these passages side by side? Make sure we can see why you think one work borrow from the other: don’t assume we can see what you do. Show us!

REQUIREMENTS

• Use no more than 2 poems, making sure that each poem is by a different poet
• Short passages—no more than a stanza or two
• QUOTE: you must quote actual lines and discuss them, but DON’T just quote the entire passage and leave it at that. Help us see the small details.
• Use MLA citation throughout with a Works Cited page
• DUE Monday, September 13^th by 5pm

For Monday: Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Parts V-VII

Be sure to finish the poem for Monday, or ideally, read it again. The poem makes more sense (or is more familiar, at least) if you read it with an awareness of what's generally going on. Then you can focus on the small details, and hear the strange music of the poem. As with any longer poem, there's simply too much to take in at once--or twice--or fifty times (I've been reading this poem since 1994, when I first picked it up, and am still rethinking it!). 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In many ways, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner mirrors J.M. Turner's later painting, The Slave Ship that we viewed in class (here's the post about it below: British Literature from 1800, "Monsters and Madmen" (Fall 2021): Links for Turner's Slave Ship (1840) (grassobrit2.blogspot.com)). How might both works be trying to disguise their message underneath sublime imagery and general misdirection? Do you think Coleridge could also have an anti-slavery or humanitarian message in his poem (it was written in 1798, as the abolitionist movement was nearing its height). 

Q2: When the curse is finally lifted and the wind blows the ship toward the shore, the Mariner is awarethat he will never be completely safe. As he observes, he is "Like one, that on a lonesome road/Doth walk in fear and dread...Because he knows, a frightful fiend/Doth close behind him tread." If this is a poem about his 'sin' against nature, and he is forgiven by acknowledging the beauty of nature, why is he still haunted? What is still pursuing him?

Q3: Even though the Mariner has been spared, the Hermit thinks he looks like a devil or something inhuman, and the Wedding Guest fears he's a corpse. Why does everyone else sees him as a monster, yet he claims to be a holy person, who prefers "To walk together to the kirk [church],/With a goodly company!"? Is it significant that he looks like a Life-In-Death himself?

Q4: The moral of this poem has been roundly criticized over the years, since the poem seems too long and complicated to have such a succinct (and simplistic?) moral. Do you think his message that "He prayeth best, who loveth best/All things both great and small" is the true moral of the poem? Is that what the Mariner has learned, and is trying to teach the Wedding Guest? And if so, why will the Guest rise "A Sadder and a wiser man...the morrow morn"? 

For Friday: Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, parts I-IV

 

NOTE: No questions for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, since I want you to concentrate on simply reading (and enjoying?) the poem. It's basically a Romantic ghost story, with a lot of Wordsworth's ideas about innocence and experience baked in. Read it for the sounds (so many amazing sounds!) and the story first, and then think about how it relates to Wordsworth's ideas--as well as Turner's painting, The Slave Ship (see the post below on that: ).

You only have to read parts I-IV for Friday, since we can't possibly cover the entire poem in a single class (we certainly couldn't cover much of Tintern Abbey on Wednesday, could we?). Below are some ideas to consider as you read, and we'll talk more about these on Friday:

* The Plot: the poem is basically about a man (the Mariner) who crashes a wedding party and hypnotizes three Wedding Guests with his weird eyes and strange tale. He tells a story about being on an expedition to the South Pole, and how on the way there, suffering from storms and cold, he shot an albatross with a cross-bow. This dooms the ship, and everyone starts to die except the Mariner, who is forced to watch the supernatural beings of the Pole overtake the ship and torment him. Finally, a ship comes to rescue him, but it's a death ship piloted by Life-in-Death, a living corpse. 'She' makes the crew die one by one and leaves him there until finally he repents, and the crew returns to animation to pilot the ship home again. Yet now he's cursed to travel from port to port telling people his tale, complete with its incongruous moral, "He prayeth well, who lovetgh well, Both man and bird and beast...All things both great and small." 

* The History: the poem was originally published in a volume called Lyrical Ballads (1798) along with fellow poet, Wordsworth. They wanted to collaborate on a volume of revolutionary, cutting-edge poetry that was based on supernatural elements that seemed to be real, and completely ordinary, day-to-day people and events that might seem sublime and profound. However, Wordsworth felt that Coleridge's poems were too shocking and 'out there,' and tolerated only a few of them, including The Rime. Years later, when he republished the book, he claimed that "the style of myself and Coleridge would not assimilate," and he rejected almost all of his poems, keeping only The Rime, and moving it to the end of the volume. So you might think about why the poem works against some of Wordsworth's style and/or ideas, even though today they're usually taught side-by-side.

* The Glosses: the poem is full of strange side-glosses (descriptions) written in an arcane style and full of scholarly information. These were not originally part of the poem. Coleridge started adding them in 1800, and continued to add more and more as the years went on. Don't take them too seriously. In fact, read them side by side with the poem and ask yourself, "is this really explaining the poem?" Some of them should make you laugh. Finally, stop reading them at all and just focus on the poem. 

* The Sounds: read this poem out-loud: it's amazing. Think about why such a ghastly and strange poem sounds like this: "It is an ancient Mariner,/And he stoppeth one of three./"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,/Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?" This opening is rather comical and the sound doesn't make the poem scary, exactly...more like something else. 

* The Style: Coleridge writes in an outdated, archaic style as if he's writing a poem written a hundred or so years ago. Why might he do this? Why not make it sound modern? (hint: Wordsworth hated this!). 

* The Sublime: this poem is full of sublime imagery and situations. Consider what the Mariner sees at the South Pole. And how does this poem use elements of horror to reinforce the power of Nature and the smallness of man? 

* An Intertextual Bonus: if you like 80's heavy metal, the band Iron Maiden wrote an 11-minute epic based on this poem, called "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" off their 1984 album, Powerslave. It might sound silly to you, but it does capture the unique rhythm of the poem and it's unusual music. You can probably find it on You Tube. 

GOOD LUCK! We'll talk more on Friday...

For Wednesday: Wordsworth's Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey (pp.25-29)

NOTE: This is a longer poem, but it's really like a verse-letter to his sister, Dorothy, who was a writer herself (famous for her journals). Keep all the poems we've already read in mind, especially "My heart leaps up" and "We Are Seven," since this poem develops them in a more autobiographical way. Below, I've broken up the poem into several parts to help you follow it easier:

PART I: (First Look at a Beloved Place from Childhood)

"Five years have past; give summers, with the length" TO "The Hermit Sits alone"

PART II: (The Importance of Childhood Memories)

"Those beauteous forms" TO "How often has my spirit turned to thee!"

PART III:(Why It's Not the Same Anymore)
"And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought" TO "Unborrowed from the eye"

PART IV: (What It Means to Me Now)

"That time is past" TO "Of all my moral being"

PART V: (What It Can Do For You)

"Nor perchance," TO "Is full of blessings"

PART IV: (Parting Thoughts)

"Therefore let the moon" TO "More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!" 

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Answer TWO of the questions below for Wednesday's class:

Q1: One of the most recurring words in the first part of the poem is "again." Why might this be an important sentiment for this poem? Why is there no past and present for Wordsworth, but instead an "again" and an "once more"? 

Q2: In Part 2-3, Wordsworth claims that the most powerful forces in a person are due to "unremembered pleasure," "unremembered acts," and "half-extinguished thoughts." Why are many of the most sublime and powerful memories ones that we have largely forgotten and are alive only in our subconscious? How does he explain this?

Q3: What is the difference between how he understood Nature as a child and how he appreciates it today? Though he can never see or experience Nature as a child again, why does he admit "other gifts/Have followed; for such loss, I believe,/Abundant recompense." What has he gained for his loss?

Q4: At the top of page 28, he writes that he loves everything "From this green earth; of all the mighty world/Of eye, and ear--both what they half create,/And what perceive." Why does he feel Nature is both seen and imagined? How do we "half create" the external world? 

Q5: At the end of the poem, he tells his sister that "these wild ecstasies shall be matured/into a sober pleasure...a mansion for all lovely forms,/Thy memory be as a dwelling place for all sweet sounds and harmonies." What does this say about the power of memory in the face of age and experience? Why do we all need to create a "mansion for all lovely forms" in our minds? 

Links for Turner's Slave Ship (1840)

 If you recall from our second class, we wrote about Turner's 1840 painting, The Slave Ship, which you can see below:

Keep your in-class writing, since it might come in handy on our first paper assignment, where you can use art as one of your sources! For more information on this painting, see the following: 

From Museum of Fine Arts Boston (where it's held): https://collections.mfa.org/objects/31102

In-Depth discussion from Joy of Museums: https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/united-states-of-america/boston-museums/museum-of-fine-arts-boston/the-slave-ship-by-j-m-w-turner/

A Short Video from Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoCW80MEGXY

For Monday: Wordsworth's Short Poems

[English Romantic Poetry]: Wordsworth, We Are Seven(23-25), Strange fits of passion (30-31), She dwelt among the untrodden ways (31-32), Lucy Gray (33-34), My heart leaps up (35), In London, September 1802 (41)

Answer TWO of the following questions based on the poems above in a short response (a few sentences--but let me see you thinking, not just answering questions). Do your best, and don't be afraid to think out loud rather than give definitive answers. When in doubt, read the poems out loud and consider the sounds, the repetition, the imagery, and the speaker (who are they? who are they writing to? why are they writing?)

Q1: How might many of these poems, esp. "We Are Seven": and "My heart leaps up" trying to capture the same sense of childhood and innocence as Blake's The Tyger? What does Wordsworth seem to think is the advantage of the perspective of innocence/childhood? Likewise, what do we seem to lost in adulthood, that the narrator in "We Are Seven" can't seem to understand?

Q2: Many of these poems were published in a collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads in 1798 (later revised several times throughout the early 1800's), where Wordsworth tried to write poetry in the speech of common men. While it might still sound like poetry to us, how do these poems try to sounds like 'anti-poetry' poetry? What makes them more 'down to earth' than, say, a Shakespearean sonnet?

Q3: Many of these poems, notably "In London, September 1802" express Wordsworth's Romantic philosophy in a very small package. How would you describe his philosophy--what does he believe, and what does he fear most about the modern world? Consider the lines, "We must run glittering like a brook/In the open sunshine, or we are unblest" (41).

Q4: Three of the poems--"Lucy Gray," Strange fits of passion," and "She dwelt among the untrodden ways"--are about a character named Lucy. Is Lucy the same girl in each poem? Or is she a symbol for a specific character that interests Wordsworth? Why is he so fixated on her? What does she seem to represent for him, besides a woman (or a child) he loves? 

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to our class blog for British Literature from 1800, "Monsters and Madmen." This course charts the evolution of ‘British’ literature from the explosion of the Romantic/Gothic movement, through the haunted decades of Victorianism, and to the shell-shocked ruins of the twentieth century. Just as technology was rapidly changing the face of modern life, so, too, literature was undergoing a severe metamorphosis that would forever change what we read—and how we read it. This exciting period of literature gave birth not only to Horror and Fantasy literature, but also Science Fiction, as writers struggled to find stories and metaphors to mirror the rapidly changing (and decaying) state of the British empire. Our class will chart these changes through three novels and numerous works of poetry, as well as the artworks of the period, which help us ‘see’ the inner landscapes of the books themselves. Not everything we read will be horrific…but I promise you, most of it will!

Be sure to buy the books for this course as soon as possible; we'll be starting with English Romantic Poetry this week! E-mail me with any questions or concerns at jgrasso@ecok.edu. See you in class! 

NOTE: The posts below this one are from my summer course and many earlier British lit courses, so you don't have to worry about them. This is not your work nor will it reflect the work I assign in our class this semester.