September 16

September 16, 2013

Art: Gustave Dore, The Mariner Is GoneMusic: Iron Maiden “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfNAiPpApx4

READING QUIZ: THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

SCHEDULE CHANGE IN TERMS OF TOPICS—OUTLAWS TODAY,

GOTHIC WEDNESDAY

LITERATURE CIRCLES HANDOUT

ENGRADE HANDOUT

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Powerpoint adapted from the following site: ttosspon.wikispaces.com/file/view/Ancient+Mariner+and+Dore.ppt

An Ancient Mariner stops one (of three) on his way to a wedding.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner



The wedding guest is mesmerized by the Mariner’s passion and begins listening to the story.


The Mariner’s Tale:

Their ship is driven south, by a storm, to a place of “mist and snow.”



http://www.ccnow.com/cgi-local/cart.cgi?xineann_DORE-RIME4_http://www.artsycraftsy.com/dore_prints.html

“The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!”



Surrounded by ice.




An albatross appears.




The albatross leads them out of the fog.




The Mariner shoots the albatross. At first the crew condemns him, but when a favorable breeze appears, they justify his action. This implicates them in his crime.




Later, the wind stops and the ship is stranded for days, “As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.”

“Water, water, every where, and all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink.”

The crew blames the Mariner for no wind and hangs the albatross around his neck as punishment.



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.comedycentral.com/press/images/roast_flavorflav/flavorflavroast_tux1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.comedycentral.com/press/series/comedycentralroasts.jhtml&h=4957&w=3664&sz=3914&hl=en&start=74&um=1&tbnid=xqP_f0UMhlz7jM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=111&prev=/images?q=flavor+flav&start=60&ndsp=20&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

A ghost ship approaches with a Specter-Woman and her Death-Mate as crew.




“Death” and “Life in Death” roll dice for the lives of the ship’s crew.

“Life in Death” wins.




“Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, and cursed me with his eye”

“With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, they dropped down one by one.”

“The souls did from their bodies fly, - They fled to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow!”



“Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on my soul in agony.”

“Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, and yet I could not die.”



“Beyond the shadow of the ship, I watched the water-snakes”

“O happy living things! No tongue their beauty might declare: A spring of love gushed from my heart, and I blessed them unaware”




The curse is lifted and the albatross falls from his neck and sinks “like lead into the sea.”



The dead men awaken and the Mariner directs his ghostly crew North.



As the Mariner returns to his home port, the spirits of his crew leave their bodies.

He receives forgiveness (shrieve) from a hermit.




The Mariner’s ship sinks.




The story concluded, the wedding guest leaves “a sadder and a wiser man.”

The Mariner must tell his tale to warn others (redemption).






Many critics see the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” as an allegory of some kind of fall,

like…

Of Coleridge -

Of Lucifer - Of Adam & Eve - …forbidden fruit…cast into hell

…opium?

“…the very deep did rot…”

“…slimy things …

Slimy sea”

“I shot the albatross”

“…and I had done a hellish thing…”

“witch’s oils, / …burnt green, and blue and

white”

Phantasmagoria! A shifting series or succession of things seen or imagined, as in a dream.

STRUCTURE:

Sin, Punishment, Redemption…

Milton Parallels?

(Paradise Lost)

Shelley’s Interpretation?

(Frankenstein)

Cain

?


“poetry gives most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood"

- 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…


Purely inspirational? Dark gothic?

“cursed me with his eye”

“Life-in-death”

“spectre bark”

Gustav Doré’s Dark Etches…Powerpoint adapted from the following site: ttosspon.wikispaces.com/file/view/Ancient+Mariner+and+Dore.ppt

Coleridge felt a deep sense of sin, for his opium addiction.

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 analyzed?

(“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” “blessed them unawares”

Crew distanced from God


Vs.Some critics maintain that this ballad was an exploration, by Coleridge, into the science vs. spirituality debate:

There are many mysterious fantastical images, the “glittering eye” with its “strange power…”

the “polar spirits” and “seraph band…”

The Latin preface says, “Human cleverness has always sought knowledge of these things, never attained it.”

He was at a point in his life where he was more concerned with the rational than the empirical, this poem was an exploration of the former.



INTRODUCTION TO THE BYRONIC HERO

Introduction

http://prezi.com/yvptsdihd6o1/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Gothic Times, Gothic Enchantments, the Revival of Romance

Return to the enchantment of the world before science

Altered mental states (like those of the outlaws and exiles)

Look for the elements of a Gothic novel (handout)

Homework

Readings listed on syllabus: Keats “The Eve of St. Agnes” (pp.

912-922) Walpole The Castle of Otranto

(pp. 586-589) Radcliffe The Mysteries of

Udolpho (pp. 601-602)Bring back your literature circle rankings

Education

September 16