Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

As I read Nicole Schuman’s post on Tintern Abbey, I finally noticed the religious undertones in this poem. That being said, I believe that Wordsworth was not actively expostulating against the religion, but rather he is showing that Nature is his form of religion. To show this, when he discusses Nature he is definitely using language used in Christianity. In lines 153-156, Wordsworth says ““I...A worshiper of Nature…Unwearied in that service: rather say with warmer love, oh! With far deeper zeal of holier love!”. I also believe that he place he is describing can also be used as an example of the religious theme of this poem. Wordsworth is discussing his transcendental experience of remembering this place, which is a few miles away from an ancient Abbey that is being overtaken by plants. It makes me think that Wordsworth considers this place his place of worship and sanctuary. When he in the city and he is weary, he thinks about his memories of this place and this restores him. This sound like what a Christian would say about their church and religion. The symbolism of an Abbey (a manmade structure) being reclaimed by Nature shows that Wordsworth considers Nature to have the ability to overtake anything created by man.

The video below is a clip of Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke. The movie is about Nature and Man battling, and it this point in the video everything the humans have created is destroyed. At the 5:20 point you can see Nature overtaking the ruins. This reminded me of the plants that overtook the ruins of Tintern Abbey.

Nature Reclaiming Land

Kubla Khan

This poem is really perplexing to me. I am not really sure how all the different situations relate to each other. The section: “By 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;” caught my attention. It seems to me that this woman is causing this sexual response from the earth. Immediately I thought of the story of Persephone, particularly the part where Hades bursts from a crack in the ground to abduct Persephone and take her back to the Underworld. Although Persephone was not wailing for Hades that way the woman in “Kubla Khan” the image of Hades bursting through the ground and the unnatural movement of the earth in the poem seem analogous. This small section made me think of another aspect of Persephone’s story. Her mother Demeter was so upset at the loss of her daughter she neglected her duty as protector of the Earth. This was how the Greeks understood the changing of the seasons: in the months where Persephone remained in the underworld, Demeter does not guard the land of Earth. In “Kubla Khan” the earth changes because of a woman’s actions in a supernatural way. This was just something else this particular section made me consider.

Frost at Midnight

Coleridge's son, Hartley.

“Frost at Midnight” reminds me of the other conversational poem we have read, “The Nightingale” because is just Coleridge thinking to and about his baby. The poem is comprised of Coleridge’s reflections upon nature, his childhood, and the future life of his child. In later editions of the poem, Coleridge chose to omit the last six lines

“Like those, my babe! which ere tomorrow's warmth

Have capp'd their sharp keen points with pendulous drops,

Will catch thine eye, and with their novelty

Suspend thy little soul; then make thee shout,

And stretch and flutter from thy mother's arms

As thou wouldst fly for very eagerness.”.

Why did he choose to do this? I think that the six lines don’t really fit well where they were placed. Coleridge begins the poem by reflecting upon nature and his surroundings, and then turns his attention to his child. He then thinks about what the future will be like for this child, and his conclusion is that life will be better because the child will experience nature in a way Coleridge did not. Immediately before the last six line, Coleridge again discussed the frost and nature. Then he finishes awkwardly with the last six lines. I think it was smart of him to omit the lines in later editions because without them, the poem moves in a complete circle and he finishes on the same thought with which he began.

“Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree”

“Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree” made me think about our discussion of “Expostulation and Reply” and “The Tables Turned”. The latter two are about abandoning academic studies and experiencing nature and allowing Nature to be your teacher. “Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree” illustrates that only letting Nature be your only source of knowledge can be dangerous. The man in this poem rejects society and “he many an hour/ a morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here/ an emblem of his own unfruitful life”. The moral of this is that man cannot pride himself on leaving society and all other people. You cannot gain true knowledge without connection and interaction with people and Nature. So the reader of all three of these is beckoned by Wordsworth to go out and learn through Nature, but is warned that you cannot lose all connection to mankind. And who is telling us this moral in “Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree”? Is it a person who witnessed the man? Is it Nature? Is it the Tree? I think it is some sort of omniscient God-Mother Nature being. But who knows?

The Haunted Beach

"The Haunted Beach" is legitimately creepy. Mary Robinson managed to make a beach, normally considered as a relaxing and sunny place, as a eerie spot full of ghosts. She describes this beach as "lonely", there is a cavern with "shad'wy jaws", and "moaning wind". This beach does not sound like the sort of place that I would want to be. But it really only gets worse. In the hut there is the body of a man who was murdered, and the speaker does not really seem to be phased by this. And of course there are the ghosts who inhabit the beach, spending all of eternity doing the work they did in their human life. When I read this the first time, I was unsure of how this could be related to the ideas of the Romantic Poets view of nature. We have read about beautiful places filled with animals and people with morals to teach, but we haven’t read about anything this creepy. Even “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” had a moral message at the end. I suppose Mary Robinson took the same care Romantics took in describing woods and fields and applied it to a beach that is sort of grey and uninhabited and maybe there could be ghosts.

To a Nightingale

Charlotte Smith’s sonnet “To a Nightingale” has a distinctly somber and gloomy feeling. I couldn’t help but be a little sad after reading it the first time. But I think my initial feeling of sadness was due to some of the words Smith chose to use. Upon closer observation, I realized this sonnet is sad for a different reason. “To a Nightingale” uses words like melancholy, tender woe, martyr, disastrous love, and mournful melody. These words initially made me feel sad because they have distressing connotations, but the last line Smith says that she is sad because she cannot “sigh and sing at liberty”. This statement is much more depressing than the fact that she describes a poor melancholy bird with sweet sorrow. I think Smith projecting her own sadness onto the nightingale’s song. She was creating the sadness she was feeling into the sounds she heard. This reminded me of the Aeolian harp we have discussed in class. Smith’s experience of nature was affected by her own feelings and because she was sad, nature seemed sad too.

Sonnet Form

Wordworth’s use of the English sonnet conventions affect the way it is interpreted. The first quatrain sets the scene and immediately we understand that Helen Williams crying brings about a response in Wordsworth that is strong and involuntary. Just the sight of her tears causes Wordsworth to have an extra-sensory experience; he can actually feel his blood in his veins and his heart can hardly handle it. The second quatrain continues to describe his bodily response, and Wordsworth returns to his normal physical state. The third quatrain reflects upon this tear of Helen Williams. He compares it to a star that is always in the sky, regardless of whether or not he can see it. The couplet at the end stands out with its irregular rhyme scheme. It ends on a hopeful note. But what if this sonnet was broken up with the conventions of the Italian sonnet? Like this:

She wept.--Life's purple tide began to flow

In languid streams through every thrilling vein;

Dim were my swimming eyes--my pulse beat slow,

And my full heart was swell'd to dear delicious pain.

Life left my loaded heart, and closing eye;

A sigh recall'd the wanderer to my breast;

Dear was the pause of life, and dear the sigh

That call'd the wanderer home, and home to rest.

That tear proclaims--in thee each virtue dwells,

And bright will shine in misery's midnight hour;

As the soft star of dewy evening tells

What radiant fires were drown'd by day's malignant pow'r,

That only wait the darkness of the night

To cheer the wand'ring wretch with hospitable light.

The first octet captures all of Wordsworth’s responses to the tear. The sestet contains all of Wordsworth’s musing of the tear and its comparison to the evening star. I know that the rhyme scheme does not follow Italian sonnet conventions, but I think the breaking of the lines makes more sense. The eight and six line divisions separate the ideas in a way that make more sense to me.