Poetry: A Didactive Medium

Gorgelia Pollard
Dr. Schwartz
Romanticism
16 December 2009

Poetry: A Didactive Medium

Within the intellectual symposium of our class, the various perspectives in regard to Romantic literature, were truly astounding and impressionable. The same sentiments conveyed in class were also further expounded on the Blog site; examining several contentional topics. Through this two-fold process, we aimed at seeking definitive and concrete answers, while also striving to fully comprehend all of the features of the literary pieces presented to us. As a result of this eagerness and anxiety, the temper that emerged was one that was often as conflicting as some of the characteristics of Romantic literature; the depictions of the supernatural, the realm between reality and imagination, the confinement of the soul, etc. Yet, through these struggles, as a class, we acted as Romantics, truly forming ideas that, indeed, were “recollected in tranquility.”

Wordsworth’s quote is a pertinent one that is arguably, suitable to most, if not all, of the Romantic works. Thus, there should be an absence of disillusionment when declared that the quote correlates with the themes depicted in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Contrasting significantly with more aesthetic overtones presented in Lyrical Ballads, inklings of toil, curses, and nature controlling and overpowering man, are various “haunting qualities” that are presented to the inquiring minds of readers (Whalley 33). However, it is through these unnerving qualities that the poem serves as a didactive medium to unravel the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” within the poet and reader (Wordsworth 265). As a result of this didactive process, readers are permanently impacted by the poem, the poet, and certain convictions and deductions of both:

For me I was never so affected with any human Tale. After first reading it, I was totally possessed with it for many days-I dislike all the miraculous part of it, but the feelings of man under the operation of such scenery dragged me along like Tom Piper’s magic whistle.#
Thus, whether consciously aware of it or not, The Rime and the Ancient Mariner is a poem, a type of instrumentality, that resonates with both not only as a result of the haunting qualities, but also because of its purpose as a poem: to transcend the imagination. [1]

One way that the poem serves as an instructive work, is by enabling the psyche of the reader to transcend through the simple language of the poem. It is “to this knowledge, which all men carry about with them,…[that] the poet principally directs his attention” (Wordsworth 271). Although previously written with archaic language, Wordsworth made several revisions in regard to the language of the poem so that it would prove as a better reading. By altering the form structure of the poem, the modified structure enables the poet to clearly “speak through the mouth of his characters” (Wordsworth 272). Thus, this display of one’s personal notions through character’s, is another way in which poetry acts as the professor to the student; forcing language, convictions, ideals, etc. unto one in the form of poetry. Furthermore, what this offers to readers, regardless of personal sentiments in regard to the poem, is a manner to perceive all other forms of literary pieces.

In addition to the structure, it is also evident through the manifestation of supernatural elements, that the imagination is aroused to enable transcendence. In the story, preceding the mariner’s curse, several apparitions appear to haunt the mariner. Along with these images, readers are presented with the concept of an Albatross; one whose meaning is conflicting. However, with the presence and assassination of the Albatross, the mariner’s curse emerges. Derived from this, is also the emergence of Coleridge’s poem, and the comprehension of these elements is the awakening of the transcendence of imagination.

In conclusion, Coleridge’s poem, The Rime in the Ancient Mariner is an example a medium through which didactive elements are introduced. The poetic aesthetics and qualities utilized by poets and present in the poem, enable readers to transcend the imagination and the limitations of the psyche. Through this transcendence, readers are able to better, if not completely, comprehend the poetry’s purpose, and maybe even the purposes of the author. In addition, these factors of poetry, provide readers with a chance to partake in the intellectual, yet slightly heated discussions as exhibited within our class. Thus, enabling readers to produce ideas and notions that are “recollected in tranquility.”

Works Cited

[1] Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, ed. E.V. Lucas,(London,1935), I. page. 240

Coburn, Kathleen, ed. Coleridge: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967. Print.

Whalley, George. The Mariner and the Albatross. Toronto: University of Toronto. Print.

Wordsworth, William. "Preface to Lyrical Ballads." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume D The Romantic Period. 8th ed. Vol. D. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Print