Poetry from the Victorian Era shifted its focus from the Romantic ideals of nature and imagination to the political and social concerns of an increasingly industrialized nation. As an art form, poetry allowed for critical response to issues that plagued a specific moment in time. Robert Southey 's poem, “The Sailor Who Had Served in the Slave Trade”, presents an important reflection on the cruelty of the slave trade and appoints Christian values as a means towards redemption. Southey 's poem seems to have been inspired by Samuel T Coleridge 's “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, however, his focus in the poem shifts away from vivid imagery into a thought provoking tale of the Middle Passage. The poem focuses on two men. One man is called the Stranger and the other is named the Sailor. Southey utilizes capitalization in order to distinguish the two as name identifiers. The Stranger is meant to act much like the reading audience, absorbing the horrifying story of the Sailor who 's tormented by his involvement in the slave trade. It 's interesting that Southey presents the story through the Sailor and not from the experience of a slave. Perhaps Southey intentionally set out to draw in a larger audience by providing a unique perspective from someone who worked in the slave trade. By not giving the Stranger a formal identity, Southey allows the reader to be placed in his shoes, becoming a bystander to the slave trade. This is purposeful because Southey is essentially claiming
The symbolism in the “Rhyme of the ancient mariner” is said to be an impossible representation of the Christian story of reconciliation from sin, redemption and forgiveness for that sin, but the symbolism in this poem clearly contradicts those views. The poem is one of a great sin committed against nature and the supernatural - being God - and how the wrong doer was redeemed from that sin and his journey into realigning what he had done. The Mariner was punished for his sin by the supernatural and forces of nature while he was glorified by his crew mates for his skill that was shown in killing the albatross with a crossbow. This is often true in Biblical stories and modern day where one is glorified for earthly talents and is given fame, but what they are famous for contradicts God and his law. Other aspects of Christianity are embedded in this poem as well that are easily overlooked like when the Mariner prays to some force he does not know. He is guilty for his transgression and knows what he has done is wrong although the sin was committed with ill will not intended. Lastly this poem displays a value important to Christianity, but also to all other ideologies and the is the topic of justice for crimes committed and the Christian aspect of thats once justice is served salvation is needed and redemption takes place. All of these values presented by symbolism throughout this poem all point toward the idea that the story of the Mariner was meant to serve as an example of the
Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.
The poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a truly imaginative work utilizing the familiar yet timeless themes of good fortune, the power of Mother Nature, and adventurous voyages over the sea. The Mariner relates the bone-chilling tale of his adventure to a guest at a wedding in his native country. Although the guest succumbs to the Mariner’s tale, he is eager to get to the wedding, which is about to start. Coleridge chose this occasion for the poem as a form of irony, by providing a stark contrast between the two atmospheres and situations in his poem. The moods of weddings are usually joyful and jubilant, emphasizing love and the union between
In the 1798 and the 1817 text of the, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, There are certain changes. Changes that effect the poem and the way that the reader sees the poem. Some of these changes include reading devices called glosses. There are many reasons for the glosses to be put into the poem. One of the reasons is to help the reader interpret lines in the poem that can be confusing. These glosses are a brief interpretation of the stanza, so that the reader will understand it the way that Coleridge intended them to. An example of this is:
All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh
Monroe says, “Poetry has always been independent, unaffiliated with any institution or university—or with any single poetic or critical movement or aesthetic school.” All poetry has a different theme that it focuses on, or does it? In these four poems, there is a strong sense of social anxiety, and then the overcoming of that with courage. In Sylvia Plath's Mirror, Anne Sexton’s Courage, Gwendolyn Brooks’ The Explorer, and Robert Hayden’s Frederick Douglass there is a strongly shared theme.
Throughout history, authors have used poetry as a way to express themselves and how they think or feel in an artistic way. There have been poems written about almost every feeling a person has ever had which is why poetry is so popular, because it describes feelings in a way many people cannot. In present day, people from all around the world look back at old poetry and try to define the true meanings behind poems using literally elements and context clues to aid them, this is known as explication. The writing named “Boat of Cypress” is a famous poem written long ago by an unknown author, and composed about a woman full of misery and despair from her personal point of view. Throughout this poem, the readers
The Fish is a narrative monologue composed for 76 free-verse lines. The poem is constructed as one long stanza. The author is the speaker narrating this poem. She narrates a fishing experience. The author is out in a rented boat on a body of water, presumably a lake. She tries to describe the fish to the fullest, which appears to be the purpose of the poem, without saying either the specie or an approximate age. The narration gives the impression that the fish is slightly old. There are a number of reasons as to why that fish got caught by the author, including time of day, the weeds weighing it down, fish’s age, and the fact that it has been previously caught five times.
It’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.
What does it mean to be wise? Webster's Dictionary defines the word "wise" as being "marked by deep understanding, keen discerment". Through the telling of the ancient Mariner's tale, the Wedding-Guest became sadder and wiser. He became sad in that he identified himself with the shallow and self-absorbed mariner. However, the mariner changed his ways. The Wedding-Guest became wise through realizing that he himself needed to alter his ways.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it was written in the late 1700s. The poem’s setting starts during a wedding, an old mariner stops one of the wedding guests from going into the party to tell him a story. The mariner’s story takes place in a ship where he killed an albatross and everything started to go wrong for him and his crew. When the mariner’s story is ending he says that he has a pain to tell people about his story, this is why he stopped the wedding guest to tell him his story. The wedding guest decides not to go to the party because he became upset, he is now a “sadder” but “wiser” man. Coleridge uses many literary elements to make the story come together such as similes, personification, symbolism
In 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge published his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Several editions followed this, the most notable being the 1815 version, which included a gloss. This poem has grown to become well known and debated, especially concerning the message that Coleridge was attempting to impart. The interpretation of the poem as a whole and of various characters, settings, and objects has been the subject of numerous essays, papers, books, and lectures. There are approximately four things that are major symbols in this work, along with the possibility that the structure itself is symbolic.
In “The Conqueror Worm,” Poe writes a compelling drama mankind’s tragic existence. Through biblical allusions and the metaphor of the worm, there is a prominent theme of death. The reference to a real play is shown as five stanzas in the poem parallel five acts in an average play.
After a Greek Proverb is an eloquent poem written by A.E. Stallings in 1968. It’s a villanelle that expands a Greek proverb that translates into: “nothing is so enduring as the accidental”. The only thing that is consistent in life is the inconsistent; emotions, objects, thoughts, etc. This notion is merely revealed with more sophisticated diction through the original Greek proverb. Yet many can pull positivity from this lesson, having a better understanding of the things around them and how living a life of none attachment can be rewarding if everything will continue to disappear before them. The proverb starts the conversation but the poem goes deeper and illustrates it by pointing out the negative side if we are to flip over the coin. It’s through this analysis of a positive and negative side, do both the poems and proverb gradually begin to differ, in both structure and focus. Consequentially the poem delves into the tragic cost of seeing nothing more permanent than the temporary.
Wyston Hughes Auden, or WH Auden, was a British poet, often considered by critics to be one of the best England has ever produced. Auden’s work is known, not only for its remarkable poetic calibre and craftsmanship but also for his skilful portrayal of myriad themes- ranging from the political, social, ethical, to the moral and even the individual.