a quest for the naturally supernatural, poetic inspiration— hallucination or the exotic?
TRANSCRIPT
Pantisocracy (citizen baby, citizen pig…)
Marriage with Sarah Idealistic about
gardening, disregarding poverty and hunger
Drugged
• cannot tell the differences between reality and illusion
The “new Milton: should write an Epic in the language of liberty
Not about domesticity
Poetry can be simple; plain like the food we eat; understandable by simple men.
William
Revolution PantisocracyThornapple alcohol Gas that changes one’s voice Science (galvanism) Writing New Poetry
He had so great velocity. I’m afraid to write in front of
him.
I wandered lonely as a cow.
Cloud would be better, William.
Hardship of England mariners Elvers Why do the other crew have to die? “Then extinguish that light.”
“slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy seas”
He’s broken the bond with nature
My darkness and my dreams are drawn to the power of these images, but they seem to shrink in the daylight.
D. Wordworth
“The Three Bears” by Southey (also the writer of Goldilock)
Reading of Kubla Khan 1:40
William asked Dorothy to reject C’s poem, as he asked C to do so to Thewall
Destruction of Coleridge
Destruction of Dorothy and the poem
RevolutionFrost at Midnight and meeting Dorothy
Wordsworth Creation Opium and Ancient mariner Tinturn Abbey, the publication of Lyrical
Ballads and Kubla Khan 2nd volume of Lyrical Ballads, Coleridge’s
return to find Dorothy addicted ending Daffodil and The Ancient Mariner
Limbo Tis a strange place, this Limbo!—not a Place,Yet name it so;—where Time and weary SpaceFettered from flight, with night-mare sense of fleeing,Strive for their last crepuscular half-being;—Lank Space, and scytheless Time with branny4 handsPhantom or FactCall it a moment’s work (and such it seems)This tale’s a fragment from the life of dreams;But say that years matured the silent strife,And ’tis a record from the dream of life.
“Frost at Midnight”
The frost performs its secret ministry unhelped by any wind …
Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness
In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round:And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slantedDown the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!A savage place! as holy and enchantedAs e'er beneath a waning moon was hauntedBy woman wailing for her demon-lover!And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river.Five miles meandering with a mazy motionThrough wood and dale the sacred river ran,Then reached the caverns measureless to man,And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasureFloated midway on the waves;Where was heard the mingled measureFrom the fountain and the caves.It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight 'twould win meThat with music loud and longI would build that dome in air,That sunny dome! those caves of ice!And all who heard should see them there,And all should cry, Beware! Beware!His flashing eyes, his floating hair!Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fedAnd drunk the milk of Paradise.
1. What meanings does the poem convey? 2. What are the symbolic meanings of the
albatross, the wedding and wedding guest, the mariner and his journey?
3. What do you think are the functions of repetitions?