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.