Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads Analysis

                I chose the following quote from Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads for its curiousness: “The principal object, then proposed in the Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate not describe then throughout, as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should ne resented to the mind I an unusual aspect; and, further and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously , the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.” In other words, Wordsworth was warning his readers that in his poems, he took ordinary moments and enhanced them with his own imagination and suggested the in a new light. These moments then become “eternal truths” in human nature, especially in regards to how “we associate ideas in a state of excitement.”

                I said I chose this quote for its curiousness and it is indeed curious. Wordsworth, it seems, thought he was breaking new ground with this “project” of his. He was not. Poetry is commonly a huge exaggeration of emotions, ideas, time, places, people, and facts. Later in the Preface, Wordsworth states that, “For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”  It is an expression in metered rhyme of what regular words cannot express so well. To take an incident and make it more than it really is, as mentioned before, is not a novel concept in the field of poetry, or even for human nature.  Wordsworth’s aim definitely ties in with the common belief held by many Romantic Poets that they, in their own way, were changing the world, one stanza at a time.

To me, this beginning section of the Preface almost comical. The tone of the Preface is very serious and matter of fact but the diction and syntax are very flowery. Then the ideas discussed in the Preface also seem a bit silly because at first Wordsworth explains to the Reader that he did not want to partake in this project at all but he was pressured by his friends and so then he decided to do it even though he didn’t want to. If we translate the language into modern, common language, the entire “project” seems, at least to me, a bit ridiculous. It is not much of a project. It has been done before and by many of Wordsworth’s colleagues, to use poetry to make a point. Romantic poetry especially was almost a intellectual-political movement. Nevertheless, this quote offers more insight into the Romantic Poetic mindset.

                The Poets and Wordsworth both used the imagination to transform the mundane into the magnificent. The Romantic Poets believed very much that the imagination was transformative and by using it to enhance the things that “men” live through, the Poets could teach a lesson or perhaps save the intellectual world from the clutches of the Enlightenment. Usually they did this by presenting a common event in a light much different from the conventional take so as to highlight its flaws, curiosities, and perfections. The lessons that the Romantic Poets hoped to teach were, as Wordsworth indicates in his Preface, “primary laws of our nature,” or simple facts regarding human nature that we may or may not realized the full profoundness of until it was explained to us by an “Author.”

                Human nature is very complex and has many facets; therefore it cannot be described by one instance or in way. This is probably why Wordsworth chose a particular topic to explore and explain. The topic he chose to emphasize was “the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement.” As mentioned before, poetry can be an exaggeration of emotions ideas and things. This in addition to Wordsworth’s admission that he made these instances more than they really were, to make a point, nevertheless, is augmented his choice to pick instances in which the human nature is in a state of excitement. It is not uncommon for the human mind to embellish events into something much more that it really is. It is in our very nature. (Perhaps this is because life is so utterly unexciting that we must make things up in order to “feel” and “live”, almost like many Romantic Poets resorted to drugs and alcohol or inspiration or solace from their depression?)  

Keats' Odes: Pain and Beauty

              Each of the five poems by John Keats, “Bards of Passion and Mirth,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode to Melancholy,” “Ode to Autumn,” and “Ode to a Nightingale,” all come back to their common theme: the binary nature of the human soul. As a Romantic poet Keats’ works seem to agree with the idea that the human experience is characterized by pain. Moreover, Keats links beauty and pain together, a concept that seems contradictory. He does this by his implications that there we can transport ourselves from pain and into beauty and even nature. This begs the question: Can we really leave pain through the imagination or through the appreciation of beauty? For example, if we long for something we will never obtain, can we escape that tragedy through the imagination? Is longing an inevitable condition of the human experience? The answers vary, especially in relation to time and what part of our lives we are in.

                As seen in the works of Wordsworth and Blake in addition to Keats poems, we are led to believe that the human soul is double sided. There is pain and there is joy. There is passion and hatred and then there is apathy. There is good and evil, right and wrong. From “Bards of Passion and Mirth,” the concept that the soul itself is a contradiction is best shown in lines 31 through 34 when Keats mentions the contrasting experiences we mortals face on a daily basis:

                                Of their sorrows and delights;

                                Of their passions and their spites;

                                Of their glory and their shame;

                                What doth strengthen and what maim.

This emphasizes that sorrow, for example, draws upon delight to define the separation between the two just as delight does sorrow. Keats upholds the belief that to understand one, the presence of its opponent is required.  In “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” the greatest contrast drawn in relation to the human soul is Time. Life passes quickly with Time.  Keats says to the urn, “Thou shalt remain,” which means that the Grecian urn will stay and pass through each generation. Also, the urn depicts moments in life that are frozen in time. Although the human soul changes and transforms, that which is seen on the Grecian urn never will. It is stuck. In “Ode to Melancholy,” Keats mentions the passing of moods: “But when the melancholy fit shall fall.” This implies that sadness comes and goes, prior to the “fit” the soul or being was in a state of something else. This idea is upheld in “Ode to Autumn,” too. Keats speaks reverently of autumn but autumn, as beautiful as it is has a sad side to it. Autumn is the slowing of the nights, the cooling of the air, the aging of the year, and the withering of life because at the end of autumn is winter, which, for many people is associated with death and the End. “Ode to a Nightingale,” supports this theme, too. The idea gleaned from this particular ode is ironic. In the Poem, the speaker is pained by his overwhelming joy at the nightingale’s song. This is the essence of the human soul; it is a state of utter irony. This main idea was a common focus for the Romantics. It also relates to the idea of thesis and antithesis joining to become a synthesis, or in other words, the quintessence of experiences and emotions.

                Another trademark Romantic idea was that life is characterized by pain. I feel that his is, in many cases, true. We can be defined by our pain and we can be defined by how we handle it. All of life is a test. It is hard. It is a struggle and we are put on earth to see how we fair- that is one way of looking at it. The other way is to see life as a state of suffering before the final reward. Either way, life is about pain. Pain is natural. It is good for us. It keeps us grounded.

                In Keats’ works, I think that pain and beauty are so closely linked is because Keats believed that we could escape pain if we could delve ourselves in to the appreciation of beauty or nature. It is possible to “escape” pain through appreciation of beauty or through the imagination. However, this is nothing more than the utilization of another object to distract us from a harsh reality. Oftentimes, we are miserable, we are told to do something rather than nothing. This keeps us from brooding. We can use our imagination to get away from what is happening. This can seem silly, if not immature, to pretend like something is not really happening, but sometimes it is necessary.

 The initial link between beauty and pain is due to the fact that beauty can bring pain. A lover pining after a ‘beauty” is in a kind of pain: heartsickness. We can be pained by beauty.  The knowing that beauty doesn’t last, that beauty dies, is a painful thought. In, “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” the scene of the two lovers expresses the pain of passing beauty and love in a round-a-bout way.

Bold Lover, never never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal-yet do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

This is unlike in life where we can love and love will dissipate, and beauty can bloom and then will wither. Keats moves us out of the pain of knowing that there will never be change or growth and lightens the mood by pointing out that the beauty and happiness found in the urn is permanently preserved. Keats offers advice about how to take away the pain of a moment and transform it into another emotion in “Ode to Melancholy.”  “…glut thy sorrow on a morning rose/ Or on the wealth of globed peonies…” Here, Keats suggests that we move the magnitude of our emotions from sadness to the appreciation of something beautiful. “Ode to Autumn” has a similar lesson. Autumn, as mentioned before, has a withering, “winnowing,” dying beauty. After harvest, the “stubble plain” and trees are left bare, the cider press only oozes, the swallows are gathering to leave the skies silent.” In this instance, beauty and pain are linked in that beauty can cause pain. Autumn is a very pretty season but it has a forlorn undertone.  “Ode to a Nightingale” best represents the pain of beauty. Keats begins this idea by saying that in life, in reality, there are many troubles and woes and this nightingale’s song is a way of escape. If he could use alcohol to be with the nightingale, to be a part of that experience, which knows nothing of the human woes, he would find it much preferable to living in the human reality. He is so happy listening to the nightingale that he could die. Keats is then saddened by the knowledge that nightingale will continue to sing his beautiful song, “Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain,” even when he is dead and can no longer enjoy the song. For him, the beauty will not last. Then he says to us that in death, there is no more pain.

                                Now more than ever it seems rich to die,

                                To cease upon the midnight with no pain,

                                While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad

                                In such an ecstasy!

                Pain and beauty can also be linked by how they both relate to longing for something that we cannot have. As in the case of the Grecian Urn, the two lovers can never have their joy but it is a comfort, in a way that they will always be beautiful and always in love. It is still a disappointment, though, to always have something out of reach. It is part of life though; it is inevitable. If we let longing be synonymous with pain, it is absolutely natural and an expected art of life. A common lesson that we see is that even if you have everything n the world, there will always be something lacking. You will always want something more. I do not think that the Romantics wanted us to circumvent the human state. And argument for that might be that they explained a lot of issues that people have and lessons that people sometimes learn the hard way but I think that the Romantics wanted us to go through the full range of emotions so that we were able to fully know what it means to feel, to live, to be.

                Another thread that runs through all five of these poems is age (and the progression of life). From “Bards” we understand that wisdom is something that comes with age and when we die we are endowed with divine wisdom. From “Urn” we learn that age is ephemeral. The urn will teach the coming generations that will age and pass like the previous generations, and this follows the idea that with age comes wisdom and even sadness.  In “Melancholy,” again, life is fleeting, death comes fast enough and we should not quicken its pace: “For shade to shade will come too drowsily/And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.” Here, Keats is telling us not to give in to a fit of melancholy and end it all but to refocus our energy into something better. From “Autumn,” we are told that in youth, or Spring, there is a beauty in it but old age, Autumn, has its own beauty, even though it is a fading and tragic beauty. Finally, in “Nightingale,” we see that although there is joy in being young and sadness in aging and dying, on “the other side” of dying is eternal joy.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the Powers of the Imagination

The poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Samuel T. Coleridge, is a good example of the imagination’s ability to transport the poet, and his readers, to an entirely new and unreal place that only exists where reality doesn’t exist.  In this poem, the reader is transported to the mariner’s experience on the sea. Coleridge does this through his symbolism so that on the literal and allegorical level, the reader may experience a profound understanding of the human condition.

                The symbolism, which was very important to Coleridge in his works, is very Christian in content. For example, the entirety of the poem contains many references to God and spirits, and saints. In one instance, there is a direct reference to a Christian spirit: “As if it had been a Christian soul.” This line refers to the Albatross, the great sea bird which is a major focal point in the story line of the poem. The fact that there is so much symbolism in the poem implies that there is another level of meaning to be understood from the poem rather than just the literal interpretation one can make from the text. Furthermore, the relationship between the symbolism and its Christian basis most likely comes from the moral of the story which is, as a margin-note indicates, “And to teach by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth.” This idea is derived from Christian’s call to be stewards of creation.

                The Albatross, a harmless but great sea bird in this poem can represent the beauty of innocence or plain innocence itself which is s often killed by human folly. The bird on the literal understanding of the poem is a good omen for the ship and her mates. This is understood form the lines “And a good south wind sprung up behind; and the Albatross did follow.”  This is easily taken to mean that the bird was good luck or good karma because although the fog and mist were heavy upon the ship and her surroundings, the ship was lead through the ice maze unharmed: “The ice did split with a thunder-fit; the helmsman steer’d us through!” This can be related to how an innocent person leads their life, blindly so, by believing in luck and goodness. Just like in the poem, when innocence is destroyed and a “knowing” is formed, life becomes harder. This idea parallels Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden after eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. A real life example is when we grow up and we find out that the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa are all a ruse, a scam, a lie, and life loses the mystery and magic that it had before.

                The different spirits mentioned in the poem might represent karma. The “blessed troop of angelic spirits, sent down by the invocation of the guardian saint” represents the good karma that comes to the ancient mariner after he prays when he loses all 200 of his sailors and when he recognizes the beauty to be appreciated in the water snakes, who give more reason to kill than a peaceful Albatross. The Spirit of the South Pole is karma in its essence. This can be determined from the note, “The lonesome Spirit from the South pole carries on the ship as far as the Line, in obedience to the angelic troop but still requireth vengeance.” Although the Spirit was helping the ancient mariner and his ship, the spirit also required more revenge on the ancient mariner for his misdeed. The “Spirit nine fathoms deed” represents bad karma, the karma that followed the mariner after he killed the Albatross with his cross-bow.

                On a literal level, the mariner’s difficult experiences are self inflicted. E has no one to blame but himself. No one shot down the Albatross but him, therefore, it is only right he be punished and must live with the guilt for the rest of his life. Nothing warranted the mariner’s actions. The Albatross did not have to die. The mariner should have left well enough alone. Nowhere in the poem does even Coleridge give an explanation as to why the Albatross was shot. Moreover, when the mariner’s men die and his ship sinks “like lead,” and the curse forces him to travel from land to land, he loses his job, his identity, his life. This is part of a bigger them of life, reciprocity.  He took the life of the Albatross so the universe takes away his “life” and he is forced to live on land.

                I find the mariner’s action, killing the Albatross, to be very human of him. As humans, we destroy innocence, or ignorance, everyday with our curiosity. We destroy the beauty and magic of the world in our quest to seek the answers and understand   all that happens and why it happens. As a consequence of our, yes, selfish desire to know, we must live with the knowledge that the world is a bleak and unexciting place when we know everything In the case of the mariner, because he did not take care of the wonder of creation that God has bestowed upon us, he was taught a harsh lesson and his persisting guilt forces him to tell those whom he meets of his trials and tribulations forever so that no one else may make that mistake.

                The message Coleridge tries to impart to us, strictly based on the text is that when we do a great wrong, try as we might to avoid and forget it, we can’t. It becomes part of who we are and follows us for eternity. If you take a step further, the message also means that we will wake up the “morrow morn” much like the detained wedding guest, “a sadder and wiser man” when we destroy our own innocence.

                This certainly is quite a wild story and is obviously a journey through the imagination. The imagination, however, is not so totally novel that it is free of the same themes present in our daily lives. This poem comes from the sometimes opium influenced creativity of Samuel Coleridge but the message it carries is not an imaginary idea but a conventional moral found in every Bible. Although it was the Romantics’ belief that the imagination as a means of escape from one’s surroundings, trading the details of the current surroundings for new and different one’s of a different place, and it encourages the total rejection of convention, dealing with time and space, it is not free. We imagine things what we know, just in a more chaotic manner. This poem, as wild and transformative as it and the story are, they are still confined with expectations ingrained in us by society.