A Final Response

I'm writing this blog in response to Sarah Sheldon's interpretation of "Lines Left Upon A Seat In A Yew Tree," which can be found here: http://desolatenature.blogspot.com/2010/04/give-up-on-your-pride.html#comments . In the story, a man is corrupted by society. Because of his dislike for the human emotions of jealousy and hate, he goes to live in nature and solitude. At first he is overwhelmed with the beauty of nature, but he doesn't remain happy because he nurtures "morbid pleasures" and can't stop thinking that he is missing out on relationships with other human beings. In the end, the man dies alone because he was so sad. In her blog, Sarah argues that he loses his happiness because he becomes too prideful, and that this pride made it so he could not see the real beauty of nature. She also argues that is makes people forget the serenity of the natural world. While I believe that pride is a big reason why the man in this story loses his happiness, I disagree a little with Sarah's approach. It was not the man's pride in nature, but his pride when he was interacting with other human beings. Pride didn't stop the man from appreciating the real beauty of nature; it actually stopped him from having meaningful relationships with other human beings. He was too prideful and stubborn to go back into society and develop relationships, and because of this pride he died alone in nature. This poem is a warning that everyone needs to find a good balance between society and nature, because both are important to a person's well-being. Even though William Wordsworth was obsessed with nature and in a way revered it, it cannot be the only aspect of a person's life because human relationships sustain a person's happiness.
In this story, nature essentially kills the man because he had no relationships with people. This made me think of a recent movie that came out called "The Happening." In this movie nature (plants, trees, etc.) releases a toxin when there are big groups of people around which makes each person want to kill themselves. Although this is a somewhat ridiculous plot, it is an opposite example of why nature kills the man in "Lines Left Upon A Seat In A Yew Tree." In the story, nature kills the man for not enough human relations, and in the movie nature kills people because there are too many of them. Here is the link to the trailer of "The Happening": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMLvh4Tb6g"

Effusion 23: To the Nightingale

In "Effusion 23: To the Nightingale," Samuel Taylor Coleridge speaks to the nightingale and examines the meaning of the nightingale's melancholy song in relation to love. Coleridge acknowledges that the nightingale's song is sad: "Most Musical, most melancholy bird!" But the nightingale's song is also extremely beautiful, and although Coleridge realizes this, not everyone does. To some the nightingale's song is only sad. This is because nature can emulate our emotions and we see what we feel in nature, meaning that maybe the people who think the nightingale's song is only sad are actually sad almost all of the time. These people experience "the languishment of lonely love..." and think that love always ends painfully and alone. Coleridge acknowledges that love, like the nightingale's song, can be sad at times. Coleridge experience this firsthand throughout his life, as he had many problems with his love life. But often the nightingale's song is extremely sweet and beautiful, and Coleridge knows that love is often the same way. He knows this because he now loves his wife Sara, whom he mentions towards the end of the poem. Coleridge says that her voice, like the nightingale's, is very sweet. Since Coleridge is now happily in love, he sees that the nightingale's song is happy because he sees his own feelings in the nightingale.

Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree

"Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree" by William Wordsworth is about a man who was "pure in heart" as a youth, but as he got older society corrupted his innocence. Specifically, he is not fond of the human emotions of jealousy and hate. Because of this, he rejects society and goes to live in nature in solitude, and at first he becomes overwhelmed with the beauty of nature. However, he does not remain happy. He is surrounded by nature, which he finds beautiful and should prove to be a comfort to him (it should "lull thy mind"). But after time, instead of appreciating his surroundings, he nourishes "morbid pleasures" and is too prideful. He starts to feel sad that he is not able to experience relationships with other human beings: "Then he would sigh, inly disturbed, to think that others felt what he must never feel." He grows sadder and sadder, "his eyes streamed with tears," and he eventually dies alone.
The first half of this poem tells the story of this man, and the second half tells the moral of the story. The last stanza has a tone of warning, and advises us to find a balance between nature and human relations. Wordsworth is constantly preaching that nature is important to a human's development and has healing powers, but this poem shows that nature is not the only important thing in the world.

The Haunted Beach

The Haunted Beach by Mary Robinson is an extremely eerie poem that deals with the supernatural. It tells the story of an isolated old Fisherman that lives at a haunted beach. A shed on the beach houses the dead body of a mariner. Because of line 69, "The Murd'rer's liquid way," I have come to believe that the mariner drowned in the ocean and washed up on the beach. The Fisherman put the body in the shed, and ever since then he has "toil'd in vain" and been haunted.
This poem seems very similar to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I wonder if "The Haunted Beach" is a sequel to this poem, and the dead mariner is actually the mariner from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." If not, the characters in each poem are definitely similar. First it is important to consider that Mary Robinson had a close professional relationship with Coleridge. She was greatly influenced by his works, and many times they actually wrote in response to each others poetry. Both poems have similar themes of isolation which lead to dark consequences. And many aspects of the two poems are the same: specters and ghosts, a dangerous sea, ominous birds, and other eerie supernatural elements. The dead man was a shipwrecked mariner, also doomed from his home. Also, both mariners make selfish decisions that get their crews killed. But the mariner in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is also similar to another character in "The Haunted Beach": the Fisherman. Both of these characters witnessed horrifying events of murder, and both are doomed to dwell on these events and be haunted. Both are trying to forget them and free their souls from this darkness.
Although I don't believe that "The Haunted Beach" is a sequel to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," it is obvious that they are connected in some ways. It seems that Mary Robinson idolizes Coleridge's poem by writing "The Haunted Beach."

Sonnet II: Written at the Close of Spring

Charlotte Smith's "Sonnet Written at the Close of Spring" is a romantic poem about nature written in the traditional form of a sonnet. It shows that nature and humanity are interconnected and uses human traits in the non-human world. The sonnet starts off discussing the wonders of spring, and talks about many flowers that bud and bloom in the spring: anemonies, primrose, hare-bells, violets, and purple orchis. Every spring, these beautiful flowers come alive again. Smith appreciates the beauty of nature and how it renews itself each spring, but is saddened that humans cannot do the same. "Ah, poor humanity! so frail, so fair, Are the fond visitors of thy early day, Till tyrant passion, and corrosive care, Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!" In these lines, Smith is speculating about youth and growing old. She feels sorry for humanity because unlike flowers, we age until our colors fade away, and then we never see those youthful, vibrant colors of our personalities ever again. At the end of the sonnet, Smith asks "Why has happiness no second spring?" Since humans are most happy when they are young and vibrant, she is basically asking, "Why don't humans have a second spring?" In a way, Smith is saying that nature is far better off than humans are, because nature has the ability to start over and become vibrant over and over again.

Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress

Wordsworth was always a fan of Helen Maria Willaims' poetry. He owned many of her works, and many of his poems are based off of hers, sometimes nearly identical. He absorbed many of her tropes and styles of writing, and even stole information from her writings. He plagiarized her in his account of Revolutionary France, since he was not in France at that time (Todd 458). He also appreciates and respects Williams sensibility. But I think that in the "Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress," Wordsworth is showing something a little more about his appreciation for Williams. He not only appreciates her writings, but is also enamored of her. This is shown in the poem by very emotional lines like "My pulse beat slow, And my full heart was swell'd to dear delicious pain." This almost sounds like he is in love with her. He also says that she has great virtue by showing such compassion. Wordsworth was infatuated with Williams, and he tried very hard many times to try to meet her. In 1791 when Wordsworth returned to France, he sent a letter of introduction to her with a request to meet her, but she left as soon as he got there (Todd 457). This made him very disappointed. He tried many other times throughout the years to meet her, but did not get to do so until 1820, when he was 50 and she was almost 60 (Todd 456). But in his teenage years, Wordsworth wrote his first poem about his poetic heartthrob and anima, Helen Maria Williams. And it is easy to see from this poem that he is enamored of her.
The information I used in this article was found here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717918
Todd, F.M.. "Wordsworth, Helen Maria Williams and France". JSTOR: The Modern Language Review. 03/17/10 .

Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth is not only about Wordsworth's return to Tintern Abbey after 5 years, but also about his return to nature itself. Throughout almost all of his work, Wordsworth emphasizes the importance of nature to a person's intellectual and spiritual development. This poem not only emphasizes that importance, but also relates nature to the divine. In this poem, Wordsworth seems Pantheistic. Pantheism is the view that the Universe (and Nature on Earth) is the only thing worthy of the deepest kind of reverence. Pantheists think that the best way to understand God is to relate to nature. Wordsworth calls himself a "worshipper of nature" with a "far deeper zeal of holier love," and it is obvious that he not only loves nature, but reveres it. Nature has helped him get through tough times in his life, and when he was lonely the thought of nature has made him happy. Wordsworth goes on to say that nature has given him a "sublime" gift, which in this case I believe sublime really means divine. This sublime, or divine, gift allows Wordsworth to understand the "unintelligible world" and "see into the life of things." Through nature, he understands God and everything God created. This thought process is similar to a section of Hartley's Observations on Man, which says that the pleasures that we enjoy can be understood through nature. Wordsworth says that nature is "The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul, of all my moral being." This relates to Rousseau's A Discourse upon the Origin of Inequality. Rousseau says that in the state of nature, man is the most pure and moral. Society corrupts man and makes him wicked because he desires artificial faculties. In Tintern Abbey Wordsworth worships nature for how pure and simple it is.

The Last of the Flock

In "The Last of the Flock" by William Wordsworth, the narrator comes upon a grown man weeping in the middle of the road because he had to sell all his sheep but one, and that one ended up dying. The crying man says "For me it was a woeful day" 3 times, which emphasizes the sadness that he feels. It is obvious that he is sad because his flock is gone, but I think he also feels sad and guilty about loving his children less. He had to sell his sheep so he could feed his ten children, and for this he was upset with them. He even says, "And now I care not if we die, And perish all of poverty." He goes on to say that he loved his flock just as much as his children, and as the flock decreased so did the love for his children. For this, he thinks he is cursed, and acknowledges that it was an evil time. The narrator says that it is uncommon for a grown, healthy man to cry. Crying in the Romantic age was usually associated with children. But after being cursed, losing his flock, and losing the love for his children, how could the man not cry? If the man had not sold his flock and therefore not provided food for his children, then his children would have been crying instead. In a way, he takes their role, because children were the ones that usually cried. Even though he is extremely sad, he was a good father and saved his children the pain. And even though he thinks he loves his children less, by being unselfish and providing for them he is in reality showing his love for them. In the end, he chose his children over his flock, and although he is sad now, he spared the feelings of many others.

Simon Lee

I believe that William Wordsworth's Simon Lee is about the course of life and the fear of growing old. Of the 13 stanzas of the poem, the first ten just describe Simon Lee and his life. Basically, Simon Lee's life has been in a downward spiral since his youth. In his youth, Simon Lee was a servant for a wealthy family, but he was happy. He was a master hunter, and no man was as good as he was. Everyone had heard of him, and no one was happier. But Simon Lee outlived everyone in the household, including the dogs and horses. He loses his left eye and his limbs become marred. He is extremely thin, sick, and weak, and is nearing death. He has no children, and his wife is just as old and weak as he is. The reader has to sympathize with Simon Lee after reading all of this, as he is now completely opposite of what he was as a youth at the peak of his life. At this point in the poem, Wordsworth warns the reader that this is not a tale and that there will be no action. I think he does this so that the reader will reflect on the description of Simon Lee in the previous stanzas. However, he then tells a tale after all. After seeing Simon Lee struggle to chop up a "tangled root," the narrator (Wordsworth) offers to help. While Simon Lee hadn't been able to do it all day, the narrator severs it "with a single blow." Simon Lee is so overwhelmed with joy that he cries and thanks the narrator in an overwhelming fashion. The narrator never expected such thanks, but it actually makes him sad. This is because Simon Lee has gone from a youthful, vibrant, strong man into a feeble, old, helpless one. The narrator realizes that now he is like the youthful Simon Lee, but fears he will soon enough be like the old Simon Lee. Below is a link for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button trailer. This movie is about mortality and dealing with human's natural fear of death. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L6K3fkwr-Y

The Nightingale

In "The Nightingale: A Conversational Poem" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the speaker, the speaker's friend, and the friend's sister are sitting and talking on a bridge near a stream about nightingales and nature. I believe that the speaker is Coleridge himself, and his friend is actually William Wordsworth. Coleridge, Wordsworth, and all Romantics loved nature and praised its beauty, because they believed nature is always joyous. It is obvious that this poem praises the beauty of the natural world, referring to the moon, nighttime, and the nightingale's song. Coleridge refuted those that said that the nightingale was melancholy just because a melancholy man sees his own feelings in the nightingale's song, because nature always inspires joy. Therefore, nature is not a representation of human feelings, but can shift to resemble a person's feelings. Coleridge and Wordsworth also believed that nature was a vital part to a child's development and to fully understand yourself as a person you should spend a lot of time in nature as a child. The baby in the story is Coleridge's first-born son Hartley, and Coleridge takes him outside under the moonlight when he was crying because nature is always so joyous. He wanted to make sure that from a young age his son would recognize this and grow up loving nature just as much as his father. I've included a picture of a baby simply enjoying nature.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner makes others sadder?

In "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Mariner must retell his story whenever he feels guilty for killing the albatross and also for being responsible for his shipmates' deaths. He knows when he comes upon a man that he must tell his tale to, and by telling his tale he is freed from his guilt. However, does part of his guilt and sadness get passed on to the person he tells the tale too? At the end of the poem, the Wedding-Guest who had just heard the Mariner's tale was stunned. Although he was at a wedding, which is supposed to be a joyous occasion, the Wedding-Guest was depressed. The last two lines of the poem are "A Sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn." After retelling his story, the Mariner is freed from his sadness, but I believe this is only because the sadness is passed on to the listener. When the Mariner tells his tale, it can in a way be seen as a confession for the sins he committed. By confessing and telling others to love all things that God made, he is repenting for what he did. By listening to the story and feeling the Mariner's pain and remorse, the Wedding-Guest (and all others that heard the tale) at first feel sad, but in the end are helping the Mariner earn his way back into heaven. They act as the priest would in confession. This makes me think, do priests feel the pain and sadness of others when they listen to confessions?
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God in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Throughout "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the sun and the moon are referenced many times. The sun is referenced eleven times, while the moon is referenced a whopping fourteen times. Both the sun and the moon symbolize God in the poem, but each represents a different side of God. The sun represents the wrathful, vengeful side of God that punishes wrongdoings. During the day, when the sun comes out, the breeze pushing the ship suddenly stops and the ship becomes stranded in the middle of the sea. The sun is so hot and bright that it dries up all the water and the crew's throats become extremely dry and parched. This eventually leads to the death of all except the Mariner, who is being punished for killing the albatross. After seven days of being parched and staring at all the dead corpses, the Mariner was still unable to die and was also unable to pray during this time. But when the moon finally rose, all the sea creatures that the Mariner saw before as ghastly and slimy, he now saw as beautiful. He then found himself able to pray, and he blessed them. Blessed spirits then inhabited the crew's bodies, and their work propelled the ship forward. The Mariner returns home by moonlight. All these good things happened at night when the moon was out. The moon represents the compassionate and forgiving God, which forgave the Mariner when he saw the beasts as beautiful and blessed them. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" can definitely be seen as a Christian allegory when you consider that the sun and the moon represent the two sides of God.
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