DISCOVERING LITERATURE:

ROMANTICS AND VICTORIANS

TODAY THE WORD
‘’ROMANTİC’’EVOKES İMAGES OF
LOVE AND SENTİMENTALİTY, BUT THE
TERM ‘’ROMANTİCİSM’’ HAS A MUCH
WİDER MEANİNG. IT COVERS A
RANGE OF DEVELOPMENTS İN ART,
LİTERATURE, MUSİC AND PHİLOSOPHY
SPANNİNG THE LATE 18TH AND EARLY
19TH CENTURİES. THE ROMANTİCS
WOULD NOT HAVE USED THE TERM
THEMSELVES:THE LABEL WAS APPLİED
RETROSPECTİVELY, FROM AROUND
THE MİDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY.
 In 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared in The Social Contract:
‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.’ During the
Romantic period major transitions took place in society, as
dissatisfied intellectuals and artists challenged the Establishment.
In England, the Romantic poets were at the very heart of this
movement. They were inspired by a desire for liberty, and they
denounced the exploitation of the poor. There was an emphasis
on the importance of the individual; a conviction that people
should follow ideals rather than imposed conventions and rules.
The Romantics renounced the rationalism and order associated
with the preceding Enlightenment era, stressing the importance
of expressing authentic personal feelings. They had a real sense
of responsibility to their fellow men: they felt it was their duty to
use their poetry to inform and inspire others, and to change
society.
REVOLUTION
 This was a time of physical confrontation; of
violent rebellion in parts of Europe and the New
World. Conscious of anarchy across the English
Channel, the British government feared similar
outbreaks. The early Romantic poets tended to
be supporters of the French Revolution, hoping
that it would bring about political change;
however, the bloody Reign of Terror shocked
them profoundly and affected their views. In his
youth William Wordsworth was drawn to the
Republican cause in France, until he gradually
became disenchanted with the Revolutionaries.
THE IMAGINATION
 They genuinely thought that they were prophetic figures who
could interpret reality. The Romantics highlighted the healing
power of the imagination, because they truly believed that it
could enable people to transcend their troubles and their
circumstances. Their creative talents could illuminate and
transform the world into a coherent vision, to regenerate
mankind spiritually. In A Defence of Poetry (1821), Shelley
elevated the status of poets: ‘They measure the circumference
and sound the depths of human nature with a comprehensive
and all-penetrating spirit…’. [1] He declared that ‘Poets are the
unacknowledged legislators of the world’. This might sound
somewhat pretentious, but it serves to convey the faith the
Romantics had in their poetry
THE MARGINALISED
AND OPPRESSED
 Wordsworth was concerned about the elitism of
earlier poets, whose highbrow language and
subject matter were neither readily accessible nor
particularly relevant to ordinary people. He
maintained that poetry should be democratic;
that it should be composed in ‘the language
really spoken by men’ (Preface to Lyrical Ballads
[/works/lyrical-ballads] [1802]). For this reason, he
tried to give a voice to those who tended to be
marginalised and oppressed by society: the rural
poor; discharged soldiers; ‘fallen’ women; the
insane; and children.
 CHILDREN, NATURE
AND SUBLIME
 For the world to be regenerated, the Romantics said that it was
necessary to start all over again with a childlike perspective.
They believed that children were special because they were
innocent and uncorrupted, enjoying a precious affinity with
nature. Romantic verse was suffused with reverence for the
natural world. In Coleridge’s ‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) the poet
hailed nature as the ‘Great universal Teacher!’ Recalling his
unhappy times at Christ’s Hospital School in London, he
explained his aspirations for his son, Hartley, who would have
the freedom to enjoy his childhood and appreciate his
surroundings. The Romantics were inspired by the environment,
and encouraged people to venture into new territories – both
literally and metaphorically. In their writings they made the
world seem a place with infinite, unlimited potential.
VICTORIAN PERIOD
1837-1901
The Victorian period of literature roughly coincides with the
years that Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain and its Empire
(1837-1901). During this era, Britain was transformed from a
predominantly rural, agricultural society into an urban,
industrial one.
 During the Victorian period, Britain was a powerful nation with
a rich culture. It had a stable government, a growing state,
and an expanding franchise. It also controlled a large
empire, and it was wealthy, in part because of its degree of
industrialization and its imperial holdings and in spite of the
fact that three-fourths or more of its population was working-
class. Late in the period, Britain began to decline as a global
political and economic power relative to other major powers,
particularly the United States, but this decline was not acutely
noticeable until after World War II.
WILLIAM BLAKE
LIFE
SONGS OF INNOCENCE
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
 WILLIAM BLAKE((28
November 1757 – 12 August
1827)
.William Blake was an English poet, painter, and
printmaker.
. What William Blake called his ‘ Spiritual Life’ was a varied
, free and dramatic as his ‘Corporeal Life’ was simple ,
limited and unadventerous.
. His father was a london tradesman. His only formal
education was in art. Despite his obvious talents as a poet,
his official profession was as an engraver because he could
not afford to do a painter’s apprenticeship and therefore
began his apprenticeship with the engraver James Basire in
1772.
. After completing his apprenticeship six years later, he
joined the Royal Academy of Art. (The Royal Academy of Arts (RA)
is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London.
Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded
institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpose is to promote the
creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions,
education and debate.)

.At this point his art and engraving remained separate – he

wrote and drew for pleasure and simply engraved to earn a
living.
.In 1784 he opened his own shop and in the same year
completed “Island in the Moon”, which ridiculed his
contemporaries of the art and literature social circles he
mixed with.
. Two years previous to this, he married Catherine Boucher.
.Now Blake was an established engraver, he
began experimenting with printing techniques
and it was not long before he compiled his first
illuminated book, 'Songs of Innocence' in 1788.
. Blake wanted to take his poetry beyond being
just words on a page and felt they needed to be
illustrated to create his desired effect.
.Shortly after he completed 'The Book of Thel'
and from 1790-3, 'The Marriage of Heaven and
Hell', which followed on from his significant
Prophetic books. These books were a collection
of writings on his philosophical ideas and
although they have nothing to do with his
poetry, it was a sign of his increasing awareness
of the social injustices of his time, which led to
the completion of his 'Songs of Experience' in
1794.
.One of Blake’s main influences was the society in
which he lived. He lived during revolutionary times
and witnessed the downfall of London during
Britain’s war with republican France.
.His disgust with society grew as he matured and
'The Songs of Innocence and Experience' depict
this transition. As well as having radical religious
ideas for the time (he did not believe in “religion of
nature or reason, but thought man’s nature was
imaginative and mystical” (Lister 1968, p.27)), he
also had radical political ideas due to the day-to-day
poverty he was forced to witness.
.Blake’s preoccupation with good and evil as well as
his strong philosophical and religious beliefs
remained throughout his life and he never stopped
depicting them in his poetry and engravings.
.Working directly on a copper plate with pens , brushes,
and an acid-resistant medium ; he wrote the text in
reverse(so that it would print in the normal order) and also
drew the illustrian ;he then etched the plate in acid to eat
away the untreated copper and leave the design standing in
relief.
.The pages printed from such plates were colored by hand
in water colors, often by Catherine Blake , and stitched
together tomake up volume.
.This process was laborious and time-consuming , and
Blake printed very few copies of his books ;for example ,
of Songs of Innocence and of Experince only twenty-eight
copies (some of them incomplete) are known to exist. .
. To read a Blake poem without the pictures is to miss
something important:Blake places words and images in a
relationship that is sometimes mutually enlightening , and
sometimes turbulent , and that relationship is an aspect of
the poem’s argument.In this mode of relief etching, he
published Song of Innocence (1789) then added
supplementary poems and printed Songs of Innocence and
of Experince(1794).
.He died at the age of sixty-nine in 1827 and although the
Blake family name died with him, his legacy as a
fascinating, complex man of many artistic talents will no
doubt remain strong well into this century.
.Other famous works include 'Europe', 'America',
'Visions of the Daughters of Albion' and 'The Book of
Urizen’.
.Although Blake is not well known for being a specifically
grotesque artist, it is his experiences and disgust with
London society in the late eighteenth century that clearly
emulates elements of the grotesque.
.As it would be impossible to discuss all of Blake’s
works, this study will focus on 'Songs of Innocence and
Experience', particularly 'Songs of Experience' to learn
how he portrayed his views on society and how the
grotesque falls into that.
SONGS OF INNOCENCE (1789)
. Songs of Innocence was originally a complete work first
printed in 1789. It is a conceptual collection of 483 poems,
engraved with artwork. This collection mainly shows
happy, innocent perception in pastoral harmony, but at
times, such as in "The Chimney Sweeper" and "The Little
Black Boy", subtly shows the dangers of this naïve and
vulnerable state.
. interpretations of this collection centre around a mythical
dualism, where "Innocence" represents the "unfallen
world" and "Experience" represents the "fallen
world"Blake categorizes our modes of perception that tend
to coordinate with a chronology that would become
standard in Romanticism: childhood is a state of protected
innocence rather than original sin, but not immune to the
fallen world and its institutions. This world sometimes
impinges on childhood itself, and in any event becomes
known through "experience", a state of being marked by
the loss of childhood vitality, by fear and inhibition, by
social and political corruption and by the manifold
oppression of Church, State and the ruling classes
 • In the first stanza of ten lines of William Blake’s poem The Lamb,
the child who is supposed to be speaking to the lamb, gives a brief
description of the little animal as he sees it. The lamb has been
blessed with life and with the capacity to feed by the stream and
over the meadow; it has been endowed with bright and soft wool
which serves as its clothing; it has a tender voice that fills the valley
• STANZA ONE with joy.
• Little Lamb who made thee • he child of innocence repeatedly asks the lamb as to who made
him. Does he know who created him (the lamb)? The same
• Dost thou know who made
question has been put repeatedly all through the first lines of the
thee
poem. The child addresses Little Lamb to ask him who made him
• Gave thee life & bid thee feed. and wants to ascertain whether he knows who made him. The child
wants to know who gave the Lamb his life, who fed him while
• By the stream & o’er the living along the river on the other side of the meadow. H also wants
mead; to know from the Lamb who supplied him with a pleasant body
cover (clothing) which is softest, full of wool, and shining.
• Gave thee clothing of delight,
• The Lamb is also asked by the child who gave him such a delicate
• Softest clothing wooly bright; bleating voice, which resounds a happy note in the surrounding
valleys. The stanza is marked by the child’s innocence which is the
• Gave thee such a tender voice, first stage in Blake’s journey to the truth.
• Making all the vales rejoice!
• Little Lamb who made thee • “The Child of Innocence lives by intuition enjoys a spontaneous
communion with nature and sees the divine in all things.”
• Dost thou know who made
thee
 • In the second stanza of the poem, there is an identification of the
lamb, Christ, and the child. Christ has another name, that is, Lamb,
because Christ is meek and mild like lamb. Christ was also a child
when he first appeared on this earth as the Son of God. Hence the
appropriateness of the following lines: “He became a little child:/I a
child & thou a lamb,/We are called by his name.” The child in this
poem speaks to the lamb as if the lamb were another child and could
respond to what is being said. The child shows his deep joy in the
• Stanza Two company of the lamb who is just like him, meek, and mild. The poem
conveys the spirit of childhood – the purity, the innocence, the
• Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
tenderness of childhood, and the affection that a child feels for little
• Little Lamb I’ll tell thee! creatures.
• He is called by thy name, • A religious note is introduced in the poem because of the image of Christ as a
child. The Lamb is a pastoral poem. The pastoral poem note in Blake is another
• For he calls himself a Lamb: symbol of joy and innocence. In the next ten lines of the second stanza from
• He is meek & he is mild, William Blake’s poem The Lamb, the child himself proceeds to answer the
questions he has asked the Lamb in the first stanza. The child says that the
• He became a little child: person, who has created the Lamb and has given many gifts described in the first
stanza, is himself by the name of the Lamb.
• I a child & thou a lamb,

• We are called by his name.

• It is Jesus Christ who calls himself a Lamb. Jesus the Lamb is meek (submissive)
• Little Lamb God bless thee. and mild (soft-natured), and he became a child for the sake of mankind. The
• Little Lamb God bless thee. narrator (I) is a child, he is Lamb and they both are called by Jesus’s name. The
Lamb identifies with Christ to form a Trinity of Child, Lamb, and Redeemer
(Jesus).
 about
• Like many of Blake's works, the poem is about Christianity. The lamb is a frequently used
name of Jesus Christ, who is also called "The Lamb of God’’.
• . In the form of a dialogue between the child and the lamb, ‘The Lamb’ is an amalgam of
the Christian script and pastoral tradition.
• . In ‘The Lamb’ Blake explores themes of religion, innocence, and morality. Throughout the
lines, he, or his speaker, expresses his appreciation for God and what he represents. The
“lamb,” or Christ, should be a source of celebration for all who see or hear him. Its
innocence is one of the most important features. All people should strive for the image of
the lamb.
• The speaker of the poem, possibly a shepherd, repeatedly asks the lamb “who made thee?”
the answer is God, but the speaker is also saying God also made himself.
• The Lamb' is a lyric poem consisting of two 10-line stanzas.
• Figures of speech: allusion , assonance , imagery ,alliteration, Enjambment.
• The first stanza and sixth stanza, • In the third and fourth stanzas, Blake
alike in every respect except for the introduces another central metaphor,
shift from ‘Could frame’ to ‘Dare explicitly drawing a comparison
frame’, frame the poem, asking about between God and a blacksmith. It is as
the immortal creator responsible for if the Creator made the blacksmith in
the beast. his forge, hammering the base
materials into the living and breathing
ferocious creature which now walks the
• The second stanza continues the fire earth.
imagery established by the image of
the tiger ‘burning bright’, with talk of
‘the fire’ of the creature’s eyes, and • The fifth stanza is more puzzling, but
the notion of the creator fashioning ‘stars’ have long been associated with
the tiger out of pure fire, as if he (or human destiny (as the root of
He) had reached his hand into the ‘astrology’ highlights). For Kathleen
fire and moulded the creature from it. Raine, this stanza can be linked with
(The image succeeds, of course, another of William Blake’s works, The
because of the flame-like appearance Four Zoas, where the phrase which we
of a tiger’s stripes.) It must have been also find in ‘The Tyger’, ‘the stars threw
a god who played with fire who made down their spears’, also appears.
the tiger.
 about
• . ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake consists of six stanzas, with each stanza consisting of four lines. The poem f.lows
with a rhythmic synchronization (AABB) with a regular meter.
• This poem is written from the third-person point of view. It seems that the omniscient narrator of this piece is an
awe-struck human being who gives voice to Blake’s inexpressible feelings.
• The Tyger" is a poem by visionary English poet William Blake, and is often said to be the most widely
anthologized poem in the English language. It consists entirely of questions about the nature of God and
creation, particularly whether the same God that created vulnerable beings like the lamb could also have made
the fearsome tiger. The tiger becomes a symbol for one of religion's most difficult questions: why does God allow
evil to exist? At the same time, however, the poem is an expression of marvel and wonder at the tiger and its
fearsome power, and by extension the power of both nature and God.
• ‘The Tyger’ is a sister poem to ‘The Lamb.’ The lamb and tiger are both God’s creations. Blake presents the
former as the innocent side of God and the latter as God’s destructive side. Blake penned these poems to create a
balanced picture of the world.
• The Tyger” by William Blake presents the main idea of the destructive power of the Divine and God’s creation.
The poet presents his idea of innocence against experience and its bright and dark sides.
• Figures of speech :apastrophe , assonance , metaphor . İmagery , alliteration ,personification
 Figures of speech
• Tyger Tyger, burning bright,(apastrophe and assonance)
• In the forests of the night; METAPHOR
• What immortal hand or eye, IMAGERY
• Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

•…
• When the stars threw down their spears PERSONIFICATION

• And water’d heaven with their tears:

• Did he smile his work to see?

• Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

 Biography

 The World is Too

Much With Us
Analysis
 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
(1170-1850)

 William Wordsworth was an English poet who was instrumental

in creating the Romantic era of British poetry. He concerned
with the human relationship to nature and a fierce advocate of
using the vocabulary and speech patterns of common people
in poetry.
 Wordsworth was born in 1770 in Cumberland, England. His
father worked as an attorney. Wordsworth's parents both
passed before he turned 15. Wordsworth attended Hawkshead
Grammar School,where the northern English countryside
imbued in him a love for the natural world that would later
inform much of his poetry. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth
studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and, His first
collections, published in 1793, were An Evening Walk and
Descriptive Sketches. Before his final semester, he set out on a
walking tour of Europe, an experience that influenced both his
poetry and his political sensibilities.
 There he was caught up in the passionate enthusiasm that followed the fall of th
e Bastille, (French state prison and a place of detention for important persons ch
arged with various
offenses.) And became an ardent republican sympathizer. Wordsworth came in
to contact with French Revolution. This experience, as well as
a subsequent period living in
France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest and sympathy for the life, troubles,
and speech of the “common man.” These issues proved to beof the utmost imp
ortance to Wordsworth’s work.
 In 1795, he met author Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
soon after meeting him, the most important work of the English Romantic Moveme
nt, 'Lyrical Ballads,' was published in 1798 due to their teamwork.
IIn the context of Coleridge and Wordsworth'
s collaboration, Romantic poetry began to ta
ke shape. The writers focused on intense des
criptions of the natural world, expressions of
powerful emotions, and the interplay of the b
eautiful and the sublime.

It was a collection of poems, the work

included Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient
Mariner” and Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,”
as well as many controversial common-
language poems by Wordsworth, such as
“The Idiot Boy.
 Wordsworth’s most famous work, The Prelude,
which is an autobiographical epic poem in blank
verse (a poetik form) by William
Wordsworth, published posthumously in 1850. The
main theme of The Prelude is that society is
disappointing, but nature presents the solutions to
the problems caused by society. Specifically,
Wordsworth focuses on how disappointed he was
by the French Revolution, and contrasts this with
nature, which is shown to bring people peace,
joy, and calm rather than violence, false hope,
destruction, and backlash.
 It is considered by many to be the crowning
achievement of English Romanticism. The poem,
revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual
life of the poet and marks the birth of a new
genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth worked
on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was
published posthumously.
 In 1813, the Wordsworths moved to Rydal Mount, A
mbleside.He continued to write poetry, including T
he Excursion (1814) and The River Duddon (1820),
but the conservatism of
his later work annoyed radical
friends. Wordsworth died on 23 April
1850 and was buried in Grasmere churchyard.
 THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH
WITH US
BY WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH
 In “The World Is Too Much With Us,” the speaker describes
humankind’s relationship with the natural world in terms of loss. That
relationship once flourished, but now, due to the impacts of
industrialization on everyday life, humankind has lost the ability to
appreciate, celebrate, and be soothed by nature. To emphasize
this central loss, the poem describes it from three angles:
economic, spiritual, and cultural. Notably, the poem does not
suggest a way to regain what is lost. Rather, its tone is desperate,
arguing that humankind’s original relationship with nature can
never be revived.
 The poem first presents loss in the economic sense, implicitly
blaming urban life for the change in people’s relationship with
nature. Because the urban world has “too much” control over our
lives, we are always “late and soon” or “Getting and spending.”
Modern humans are always losing time or money. As working
people in an increasingly urban area, their lives are structured by a
never ending series of appointments and transactions.
The poem next dwells on spiritual loss, though without
forgetting that loss’s economic roots. “We have given our
hearts away,” the speaker says. Though it uses economic
language—people give something away in exchange for
something else—this line adds another perspective to the
depiction of loss. The price of material gain and industrial
progress is the human heart itself, a symbol of life and
emotion. In exchange, people receive a “boon”—that is,
they gain something. Yet what they gain is “sordid”—it is
dirty and immoral. In exchange for industrial progress,
people have reduced themselves to an almost less-than-
human state.
The poem explores how modernity has eroded not just
people’s connection to nature, but also people's sense of
individual identity and agency. The poem subtly suggests
that modern city life has lead to a sort of uniformity of
experience, and that individuals are powerless to resist
society’s homogenizing effects.
 LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
 The world is too much with us; late and soon,
 Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
 The first two lines introduce the poem’s problem,
characters, and central confusion—namely, that the world
contains the city and nature, but doesn’t seem to actually
have room for both.

 Little we see in Nature that is ours;

 Having articulated the problem in line 1 and defined it in
line 2, the poem uses line 3 to describe one of this
problem's consequences. The line’s meter and
punctuation give readers information about the speaker.
 We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
 The language of line 4 reminds the reader that individuals suffer for
broad societal gains. Modern human beings, says the speaker, are
not merely distracted; they are reduced, incomplete. They have
"given [their] hearts away.
 This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
 The winds that will be howling at all hours,
 And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers
 Lines 5 through 7 appear like an attempt to resist society’s
destructive effects. They also give more information about the
poem’s setting. Note how line 5 opens with “This Sea.” Rather than
use the article “the,” which could refer to the sea in general, the
speaker uses the more immediate “this.
 For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
 It moves us not.
 Lines 8 and 9 reveal the purpose of lines 5 through 7: that is, to describe
what modern humans can no longer grasp. Their rhythm, broken by
many caesuras, contrasts with the smooth, unbroken lines above and
emphasizes the speaker’s dejected emotional state. "For this" refers to
the description of the moonlit ocean; "everything" refers to all the
descriptions of nature that could have followed that first one, which
the speaker chooses to omit in the interest of time and clarity.
 Great God! I’d rather be
 A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
 Lines 9 and 10 initiate the Italian sonnet’s turn with a sudden
apostrophe. This apostrophe sets a tone that anticipates the speaker’s
attitude going forward. That apostrophe—“Great God!”—with its
monosyllables, relatively hard consonants (/t/ and /d/), and emphatic
alliteration,
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
 Lines 11 and 12 include language that, taken out of context, might
describe a perfectly pleasant scene in nature: the speaker stands on a
grassy field looking out at a moonlit sea. The poem’s pessimistic context,
however, modifies the meaning of the words, much in the way that
memories of the city plague the speaker’s thoughts.
 Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
 Lines 13 and 14 continue to describe what the speaker might spot were
he or she not stuck in the modern world. Proteus and Triton refer to
mythical Greek gods of the sea, part of that "Pagan" "creed" the speaker
mentions in line 10. These gods contrast with the singular "God" the speaker
shouts out to in line 9. Both of these gods are also connected with nature,
suggesting a closer link between those ancient Pagans and the natural
world than exists in the speaker's day. The fact that the speaker can't see
them thus reflects the poem's broader argument that human beings have
grown too distant from nature.
Samuel
Taylor
Coleridge
BİOGRAPHY
HİS WORKS AND ANALYSİS OF THE RİME
OF THE ANCİENT MARİNER
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
OF SAMUEL
COLERIDGE
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772 in Devon,
England as the youngest and fourteenth child of Reverend
John Coleridge. A brilliant student and a philosopher,
Coleridge wrote renowned literary criticism as well as
poetry. He traveled extensively in his life, and he is known to
have struggled with an opium addiction. By publishing the
joint work Lyrical Ballads with William Wordsworth in 1798 (in
which the Rime of the Ancient Mariner was the longest
piece) he launched the Romantic Movement in England.
Coleridge’s work was very well received by his
contemporaries, and had a lasting impact on the Romantic
Movement he started, on Gothic writers, and on American
transcendentalism. Coleridge died in 1834 from heart failure
and health complications likely linked to his drug use.
 Coleridge experienced anxiety and depression
throughout much of his life, and it is theorized that he
suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He was also
often physically ill, and was given treatment with
laudanum, which led to a serious opium addiction.
Opus Maximum. Though famous as a poet, Coleridge
also wrote extensively in prose. He wrote literary criticism
and philosophy, including a massive work called
Opus Maximum, which attempted to reconcile reason
with faith. He was unable to complete this project
during his lifetime and left behind only fragments. These
obscure fragments were mostly unknown until they were
published in 2002, and there is still no critical consensus
on whether Opus Maximum is a success or not, and
what exactly Coleridge was trying to do in writing it.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
 Coleridge was one of the founders of the Romantic Movement,
which developed in the early 19th century in response to the
Age of Enlightenment—Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th
century placed reason above all else. Coleridge also wrote
during the time of the budding Industrial Revolution, where
technology seemed to threaten the balance of humanity’s
relationship with nature. Romantics valued emotion over reason
and emphasized a glorification and appreciation of nature. The
poem is not placed in any specific time period, though it is
heavily invested in Romantic ideas, and it draws on both early
explorers and contemporary accounts of wild discoveries and
sea journeys. While the Age of Discovery was just ending,
expeditions (especially for the North and South Poles) were
being mounted as ships could sail across the globe with greater
and greater ease.
RELATED LITERARY WORKS

 Many argue that the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

was inspired by accounts of voyages to the
Antarctic by James Cook or the Arctic by Thomas
James. Wordsworth, however, claimed that the
poem was inspired by a conversation between
himself and the poet regarding George
Shelvocke’s A Voyage Round the World by Way of
the Great South Sea, a 1726 book that
Wordsworth was reading that included an
account of a sailor shooting an albatross.
KEY FACTS
 • Full Title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
 • When Written: 1797-1798
 • Where Written: England
 • When Published: First published in 1798, revised and republished in 1817 and
1834
 • Literary Period: Romanticism
 • Genre: Poetry • Setting: Wedding Reception, the Sea
 • Point of View: The poem begins with a third person account of the Wedding
Guest being stopped by the Ancient Mariner, then quickly transitions to a first
person story told by the Mariner, occasionally interrupted by the Wedding
Guest and on one occasion by two spirits called only “First Voice” and
“Second Voice.”
SYMBOLS
 THE ALBATROSS: The albatross is a complicated symbol within the poem.
Historically, albatross were seen by sailors as omens of good luck, and
initially the albatross symbolizes this to the sailors when it appears just as
a wind picks up to move the ship. . Thus the albatross can be seen as
symbolizing the connection between the natural and spiritual worlds, a
connection that the rest of the poem will show even more clearly, and it
can further be seen as a symbol of the sublime (the unearthly bird) as it
sports with the mundane (the ship).
 EYES: Other symbols and many of the themes in the poem exert their
presence through the eyes. Firstly, the Mariner holds the Wedding Guest
with his story, but also with his “glittering eye.” The eye then symbolizes
both a means of control and a means of communication, which makes
sense given the spellbinding power of storytelling in the poem. When
words fail, humans communicate through their eyes.
 THE SUN AND MOON: The Sun and Moon symbolize
the competing influences on the Mariner’s journey
and on the world. The two compete with each
other, at times embodying the forces of both the
natural and supernatural world. The sun is
associated with blood, heat, dryness, and the thirst
that ultimately kills the Sailors. It symbolizes both
the majesty and the terror of the vast natural
world, as it is described with sublime beauty and is
also used to tell which direction the ship is
traveling. The moon, as it is responsible for shaping
the tides.
SUMMARY
The beginning of the poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, is about an ancient
mariner who stops a wedding guest. The wedding guest was the groom’s best
man. The mariner started telling him a strange tale. At this point in the poem, the
wedding was about to begin. A group of guests from the wedding was on their
way to the feast. One of them, who was the groom’s best man, stopped. He was
running late. He was hurrying to the wedding hall. He could hear the music from
the hall; he knew that the bride had entered. He was not interested in listening to
the sailor but the mariner held his hand and forced him to sit and listen to him. The
mariner started saying that when the ship left the harbor, everything was very joyful
and cheerful. They sailed leaving behind the church, the hill and the lighthouse.
The sun shone very brightly and they were sailing very happily. But their happiness
did not last for long because they were hit by a tyrannous storm and the wind
changed the course of the ship towards the south direction. Nevertheless, the ship
kept on advancing. In the meanwhile, the guest could hear the ritual of the
wedding had started but he could not leave the sailor. The old sailor continued
saying that, as they kept moving ahead in the storm, they met with huge icebergs
all around. The ship got stuck in those icebergs and they were making loud noises
when cracking. Then they saw an albatross come from nowhere and perched on
the ship. The bird was considered to be a messenger of God. They thought that
there could be land nearby. The albatross hovered on the icebergs that blocked
their journey. The huge mass of ice broke into two, making way for the ship.
 The sailors on board thought that the bird was a good omen because they
were able to commence their voyage once again. After escaping the
storm, the ship had to face severe cold and mist. Visibility became very poor
and it was getting difficult to navigate. The bird accompanied the ship and
they could surpass the mist. The crew members were happy because they
thought that the bird brought favorable conditions and fed the bird. The
sailors played with the bird. The bird stuck around for nine days with the ship.
One day, the old mariner in the spur of the moment shot the bird with a bow
and an arrow. The other sailors became very angry with the mariner and
cursed him for his deeds. After the death of the bird, the sunshine returned
and the weather became better. All the sailors felt that it was the right
decision to kill the bird because it brought the storm and the mist. They
thought that the bird was obstructing their voyage. For some days the ship
sailed very smoothly towards the north direction. After a few days of the
comfortable voyage, the wind stopped blowing and the ship came to a
halt. The sun was getting hotter and hotter. They could not find a single drop
of drinking water. Only they could see seawater all around.
 The sea became very quiet and seemed like it
was burning in flames. Soon, the sailors realized
that killing the bird caused misery to them. They
got very angry with the old mariner and cursed
him for what he did. They replaced the cross from
his neck with the dead bird. The old sailor then
started feeling guilty for killing it, so he shared his
tale with the strangers.
Result
 The main point of the poem is that all creatures
are important to their creator. No matter how
unattractive or lowly, everything on earth has
been made by God and should be treated with
respect.