Coleridge, Samuel Taylor - The rime of the Ancient Mariner

Coleridge was born in Devonshire, his father was a clergyman and an important expert of Maths, Latin, Greek and Oriental languages. He studied firstly in the Christ's Hospital School in London and then he went to Cambridge, but he never graduated. Like Wordsworth, he was influenced by the ideals of French Revolution, he became an enthusiastic republican. He had a lot of problems and he suffered a lot in his life because of the chronic rheumatism and he was addicted to opium (this addiction influenced also his literature). His friendship with the poet Wordsworth was very important, they wrote together the collection Lyrical Ballads. The most important work is: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is the first poem of the Lyrical Ballads and his masterpiece. It deals with the supernatural and represents a triumph of the Gothic taste. It represents the Manifesto of the English Romanticism.
He travelled a lot, in Germany where he read some of the most famous German philosophers; he went with Wordsworth and his sister to the Lake District, then he spent a period of solitude in Malta and finally he went to live in London, where he produced Biographia Literaria, a classic text of literary criticism and autobiography. Here he spoke about his poetry and we can see the differences between his topics and Wordsworth's one. Wordsworth speaks about ordinary life, while Coleridge wants to describe extraordinary events in a credible way, he wants to present each situation in a concrete form: even if these events may be unnatural, they originate from natural elements and so they can be considered real.
Prose and poetic works
He wrote small number of poems, but many prose works, as literary criticism, lectures, plays, journalistic articles and essay on politics, philosophy and religion.
Importance of nature
Unlike Wordsworth, Coleridge didn't view nature as a consolation or a source of joy and happiness, but on the contrary his contemplation of nature is always accompanied by awareness and fear. His strong Christian faith makes him conscious that nature is much more powerful than men, it's divine and so men have to love and respect it.
Theme and language
Coleridge is interested in the exotic and in the medieval period, which is a characteristic of English and German Romanticism. This movement grows up mainly in this country because the rediscovery of the Middle Age is a return to the origin of the State, while for example in Italy these interests don't exist because in the Middle Age Italy lived a very dark and bad period.
Coleridge uses an archaic language, connected to the old ballads, rich in alliterations, repetitions and onomatopoeias.

This passage, which is taken from Biographia Literaria, contains a short account of the idea of Coleridge about poetry and about the importance of imagination.
He considers two kinds of imagination:
1. PRIMARY: connected with human perceptions, it's the ability to perceive the elements of the world, we order the world around us. Everybody has it and uses it unconsciously.
2. SECONDARY: it's voluntary, we use it consciously. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates the elements in order to re-create reality. We not only perceive the world around us, but we have the ability to use the date of reality to form a new reality. Each of us can re-create the reality in a different way. The work of art is personal, original and unique. Before, from Aristotele, man thinks that art has simply to re-produce the reality (art as mimesis, so only an imitation of nature), now artists re-create it. "Consciously will" and "re-create" are the two key words, the artists are similar to God, because they create something which is original and personal.
Then he speaks about FANCY, which is a mechanical ability: the poet has to find words to express his idea, fancy is the way in which he can share his idea and vision to everybody; it's the ability to use devices, as metaphors, alliterations in poetry or using colours if you are a painter.
In the second part he defines what he and Wordsworth have done in Lyrical Ballads. They often talk about poetry and they distinguish two cardinal ideas: involving the sympathy of the reader and giving interest by imagination, so he talks about feelings and imagination.
There are two types of poem:
-It deals with supernatural event;
-It deals withordinary life.
Coleridge writes about supernatural events. In the text he writes "…at least romantic…", it's important because it's the first time that someone uses the word romantic, but here he uses it because he wants to mean "fantastic". It's linked with the Middle Ages' romance, where authors told about night and ghosts.
Coleridge tells about fantastic events, but he wants to give them the semblance of reality and he does it by the willing suspension of disbelief (incredulità), he tries to create the characteristics which involve us to lose our disbelief and believe in this fantastic world. He creates an atmosphere that brings the reader to feel the sympathy.
Wordsworth, on the other hand, talks about things of everyday life and gives them the charm of novelty (fascino della novità), he makes them look extraordinary and new by directing our attention far from lethargy of custom (indifferenze dell'abitudine),so looking the common things by a different point of view.
Coleridge and Wordsworth have the opposite work. The first talks about ghosts and spirits as ordinary things, the second talks about flowers and natural elements as extraordinary things.

This long ballad was published in the Lyrical Ballads of 1798 together with poems by Wordsworth. It is divided into seven parts introduced by a short summary of the story.
This is a literary ballad but it was written, differently from traditional ballad which was composed by a single author and passed on orally from generation to generation. It can be considered the manifest of English Romanticism.
It’s set in a boundless (illimitato) sea with days of pitiless sun and nights lit by the moon.
Every 3 or 4 stanzas there a re captions to introduce the facts; in fact a caption is a short summary of what will be told in the following stanzas (a mix of poetry and prose).
Even argument is a summary of the whole poem.

The language is archaic; also the title is (rime = poem, mariner = sailor). This story take place somewhere in the past, the sounds are like a medieval ballad.
Ballads written in the middle ages. They were always accompanied with music (letteratura orale).
Ballad is divided into stanza (normally 4 lines); it has a rhyme scheme (ABBA usually).
Use of repetition: INCREMENTAL REPETITION: 2 lines were new and 2 lines were the same, the refrain (ritornello).
The soloist sang the new lines, the corns sang the refrain.
It was mainly about love. FOLK BALLADS.

This ballad is different: it’s a LITTERARY BALLADS.
Not all the stanzas have got the incremental repetition.
It’s very long (normally folk ballads had 10-12 stanzas); the content is different.

The choice of archaism goes together with the choice of the ballad.
The story is a bit fantastic; the story is more credible by distancing the story in a vage (no time expression) past.
The willing (volenteroso) suspension of disbelief (incredulità)

Part I
An ancient mariner stops a wedding guest to tell him his terrible story. He narrates how the ship reached the equator but, after passing it, it goes to the South Pole drawn by a storm. When the storm finishes the ship grounds in an iceberg, but an albatross takes the ship out of danger. The albatross, also after the accident, always follows the ship; but a day the mariner has something to reveal: he killed the albatross.

Part II
The Mariner begins to suffer punishment for what he has done; the ship has ceased to move and sailors are tortured by thirst, and the only moving things are slily creatures in the sea and the death-fires which dance at night

Part III
Shows how the Mariner’s guilty soul becomes conscious of what he has done and of his isolation in the world.

Part IV
The sense of solitude is stressed and the guilty soul of the Mariner is cut off not merely from human intercourse but also from nature.

Part V
Continue the process of the soul’s revival and the ship begins to move.

Part VI e VII
In the sixth part the process of healing (guarigione) seems to be impeded, but in the last stanzas the Mariner gains the wedding guest’sympathy. There isn’t the end of the story, but the reader can suppose that the Mariner’s sense of guilt will end only with the death.

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
«By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin ;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din.»

He holds him with his skinny hand,
«There was a ship,» quoth he.
«Hold off ! unhand me, grey-beard loon !»
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye-
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner

«The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the light-house top.

The Sun came upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And the shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon-»
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on the ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner,
«And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

And now there come both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

At lenght did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It hate the food in ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The heilmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through the fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine.»

«God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-
Why look'st thou so?» -With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS

È un vecchio marinaio, e ferma uno dei tre convitati: «Per la tua lunga barba grigia e il tuo occhio scintillante, e perchè ora mi fermi?

Le porte del Fidanzato son già tutte aperte, e io sono il più stretto parente; i convitati son già riuniti, il festino è servito, tu puoi udirne di qui l'allegro rumore.»

Ma egli lo trattiene con mano di scheletro. «C'era una volta un bastimento ...» comincia a dire. «Lasciami, non mi trattener più, vecchio vagabondo dalla barba brizzolata!» E quello immediatamente ritirò la sua mano.

Ma con l'occhio scintillante lo attrae e lo trattiene. -E il Convitato resta come paralizzato, e sta ad ascoltare come un bambino di tre anni: il vecchio Marinaro è padrone di lui.
Il Convitato si mise a sedere sopra una pietra: e non può fare a meno di ascoltare attentamente. E cosí parlò allora quel vecchio uomo, il Marinaro dal magnetico sguardo:

«La nave, salutata, avea già lasciato il porto, e lietamente filava sull'onde, sotto la chiesa, sotto la collina, sotto l'alto fanale.

Il Sole si levò da sinistra, si levò su dal mare. Brillò magnificamente, e a destra ridiscese nel mare

Ogni di piú alto, sempre più alto finchè diritto sull'albero maestro, a mezzogiorno ...» Il Convitato si batte il petto impaziente, perchè sente risuonare il grave trombone.

La Sposa si è avanzata nella sala: essa è vermiglia come una rosa; la precedono, movendo in cadenza la testa, i gai musicanti.

Il Convitato si percuote il petto, ma non può fare a meno di stare a udire il racconto. E così seguitò a dire quell'antico uomo, il Marinaro dall'occhio brillante.
«Ed ecco che sopraggiunse la burrasca, e fu tirannica e forte. Ci colpì con le sue irresistibili ali, e, insistente, ci cacciò verso sud.

Ad alberi piegati, a bassa prora, come chi ha inseguito con urli e colpi pur corre a capo chino sull'orma del suo nemico, la nave correva veloce, la tempesta ruggiva forte, e ci s'inoltrava sempre piú verso il sud.

Poi vennero insieme la nebbia e la neve; si fece un freddo terribile: blocchi di ghiaccio, alti come l'albero della nave, ci galleggiavano attorno, verdi come smeraldo.

E traverso il turbine delle valanghe, le rupi nevose mandavano sinistri bagliori: non si vedeva più forma o di bestia - ghiaccio solo da per tutto.

Il ghiaccio era qui, il ghiaccio era là, il ghiaccio era tutto all'intorno: scricchiolava e muggiva, ruggiva ed urlava. come i rumori che si odono in una sincope.

Alla fine un Albatro passò per aria, e venne a noi traverso la nebbia. Come se fosse stato un'anima cristiana, lo salutammo nel nome di Dio.
Mangiò del cibo che gli demmo, benchè nuovo per lui; e ci volava e rivolava d'intorno. Il ghiaccio a un tratto si ruppe, e il pilota potè passare fra mezzo.

E un buon vento di sud ci soffiò alle spalle, e l'Albatro ci teneva dietro; e ogni giorno veniva a mangiare o scherzare sul bastimento, chiamato e salutato allegramente dai marinari.

Tra la nebbia o tra 'l nuvolo, su l'albero o su le vele, si appollaiò per nove sere di seguito; mentre tutta la notte attraverso un bianco vapore splendeva il bianco lume di luna.»

«Che Dio ti salvi, o Marinaro, dal demonio che ti tormenta! - Perchè mi guardi cosí, Che cos'hai?» - «Con la mia balestra, io ammazzai l' ALBATRO!

An ancient mariner stops three young men who are going to a wedding feast; the old man is the protagonist who tells a story to the wedding guests, who are the other characters. In the first stanza we can already notice the presence of a third person narrator who is impersonal and doesn’t intervene. Moreover in this ballad there is an abrupt passage from narration to direct speech; in fact they alternate in the first part of the text. This doesn’t happen frequently in the second part.
In the second stanza we can find the formal aspects of traditional ballad: as regard the stress pattern there is an alternation of 4 stresses and 3 stresses; the rhyme scheme is very elementary, that is ABCB; then there are some internal rhymes, for example, in line 7, “met”-“set”. Alliterations and repetitions of some phrases or lines are used to advance the story line, to highlight a detail and to increase the memorability of the text.
As regard the setting we can notice a difference between the narration and the story told by the mariner: in the first case it is very realistic and popular, in fact the context of the meeting is a wedding feast, while in the second case the atmosphere is surreal and symbolic at the same time.
The ancient mariner wants to tell a story but the guests don’t want to listen to him. In this way the poet identifies himself with the old man while the guests can represent the readers: the mariner wants to bring the reader to know true things, but the reader is reluctant. But he is gifted with supernatural powers; in fact he takes the will of the guest-reader to listen to the story with his “glittering eye”. So the guest becomes a “three years’ child” who is ready to hear the old man’s tale.
In the fifth stanza this static situation finishes and the story begins in the sixth stanza, but at the end of the text the initial context is introduced again.
In line 32 the sounds of bassoon is one of the many recalls to real life of the initial situation, in fact the guest wants to go away because he is attracted by the feast and it merry recall.
In this ballad we can distinguish two levels of narration: in the first case there is a third person narrator, who is impersonal, while in a second time there is a first person narrator, who is the mariner. Also the use of the verbal tenses is different, because the tale is told in the past, while the narration of the meeting is in the present.
As regard the direct speech, also in this case we can find a lot of internal rhymes, for example in the 6th, 7th and 8th stanza. At the beginning of the tale, all seems joyful: the ship was going to the Line with a good wind and fair weather.
An important device is the use of personification for the sun and the moon: the poet refers to the sun with the pronoun “he” and to the moon with the pronoun “she”. In this case the sun has a negative meaning, while the moon a positive one.
The first symbolical element is the Storm-blast which is the reason why the Ship changes its course and steers the South Pole. The Storm-blast can be compared with Dante’s “Selva oscura”: we can see a situation where the order is upset. So we can notice the important role of Nature, which is a mirror of human’s soul; in fact the storm-blast, as the ice, is something interior: it represents interior chaos, while the ice represents total loneliness. In the 15th stanza there are onomatopoeic sounds which represent the sounds of the ice.
Also the Albatross is a symbolical element, in fact it represents a sacred link, a religious friendship, between men and nature. It is a symbol of a living soul who becomes friend of men. We are away from the idea of Industrial Society of “giving and having”, founded on profit and exploitation: in fact in this case the most important value is friendship that something sacred and spiritual.
Another symbolical element, typically romantic, is the Moon, which represents a sort of harmony that exists in men’s soul. It is a sort of rebirth connected with the image of water, so it is a sort of spiritual renewal with a positive meaning.

Repetition of a phrase (parte di frase)
Devices:
SOUND:
- ALLITERATION: vv.104
- ONOMATOPHEIC: vv. 49: drove, roared, blast;
vv. 61: cracked, growled, roared, howled.
The stress pattern is a jambic;
Rhime: A,B,C,B

- INTERNAL RHYME (it’s full of this because it’s easier to memorize):
- vv.7 the guests....set;
- vv. 59 e 60: ice;
- SIMILE: vv. 15: and listens like a thrre years’s child;
vv. 34: red a rose is she;
vv. 50: and southward aye we fled;
vv. 65: as if...soul.
- PERSONIFICATION: vv. 25: sun (p. of the sun);
vv. 41: he (p. of the storm);
vv. 61: p. ‘cause all have characteristics of the ice.
- The storm is personified - the ice : tutti gli elementi naturali sono personificati.
- ANAPHORA: vv. 51, 52, 53: and....

There are some stanzas which are longer or shorter than 4 lines; if every stanzas have 4 lines, the poem (rhythm) will be monotone.

When he killed the Albatross, there isn’t a logical reason, but this is a symbol of dark side of man.

The sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he.
Still hid in mist and on the left
Went down into the sea.

And the good south wint still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo!

And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze so blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:
Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!

All in hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrick;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yes, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.

And some in dreams assured were
Of the spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
from the land of mist and snow.

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been chocked with soot.

Ah! well a day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, tha Albatross
About my neck was hung.

Il sole ora si levava da destra: si levava dal mare, circonfuso e quasi nascosto fra la nebbia, e si rituffava nel mare a sinistra.

E il buon vento di sud spirava ancora dietro a noi, ma nessun vago uccella lo seguiva, e in nessun giorno riapparve per cibo o per trastullo al grido dei marinari.

Oh, io avevo commesso un'azione infernale, e doveva portare a tutti disgrazia; perchè, tutti lo affermavano, io avevo ucciso l'uccello che faceva soffiare la brezza. Ah, disgraziato, dicevano, ha ammazzato l'uccello che faceva spirare il buon vento.

Nè fosco nè rosso, ma sfolgorante come la faccia di Dio, si levò il sole gloriosamente. Allora tutti asserirono che io avevo ucciso l'uccello che portava i vapori e le nebbie. È bene, dissero, è bene ammazzare simili uccelli, che apportano i vapori e le nebbie.

La buona brezza soffiava, la bianca spuma scorreva, il solco era libero: eravamo i primi che comparissero in quel mare silenzioso…

A un tratto, il vento cessò, e cadder le vele; fu una desolazione ineffabile: si parlava soltanto per rompere il silenzio del mare.

Solitario in un soffocante cielo di rame, il sole sanguigno, non più grande della luna, si vedeva a mezzogiorno pender diritto sull'albero maestro.

Per giorni e giorni di seguito, restammo come impietriti, non un alito, non un moto; inerti come una nave dipinta sopra un oceano dipinto.

Acqua, acqua da tutte le parti; e l'intavolato della nave si contraeva per l'eccessivo calore; acqua, acqua da tutte le parti; e non una goccia da bere!

Il mare stesso si putrefece. O Cristo! che ciò potesse davvero accadere? Sì; delle cose viscose strisciavano trascinandosi su le gambe sopra un mare glutinoso.

Attorno, attorno, turbinosi, innumerevoli fuochi fatui danzavano la notte: l'acqua, come l'olio nella caldaia d'una strega, bolliva verde, blu, bianca.

E alcuni, in sogno, ebbero conferma dello spirito che ci colpiva così: a nove braccia di profondità, ci aveva seguiti dalla regione della nebbia e della neve.

E ogni lingua, per l'estrema sete, era seccata fino alla radice; non si poteva più articolare parola, quasi fossimo soffocati dalla fuliggine.

Ohimè! che sguardi terribili mi gettavano, giovani e vecchi! In luogo di croce, mi fu appeso al collo l'Albatro che avevo ucciso.

In this second part the scene changes because the course of the ship is different: it goes to the Line. So for the Mariner and the crew a period of rising disease and pain begins, in fact they have to be punished for killing the Albatross. In a first moment the situation seems to be favourable to the ship which is driven by a fair breeze, but suddenly the wind doesn’t blow anymore and so a static situation begins. There is a total immobility and absence of movement which is given by the image of “a painted ship upon a painted ocean”. The sea could represent Mariner’s feelings and emotions: they are completely still because he doesn’t feel guilty yet or perhaps he doesn’t know his sin. The sea is one of the most extensive symbols because it is frequently present in the ballad.
Then the sea becomes slimy and the atmosphere is unreal and horrid: there is a typically romantic gothic level with elements arousing fear and horror. The rotting sea could be interpreted as the sense of guilt, as the sin, which is destroying the Mariner’s soul: he begins to feel the blame of the killing.
There are some supernatural images which happen in the sea: it shows death-fires and becomes green, blue and white.
“From the land of mist and snow” a Spirit has followed the ship: it is that of the Albatross which brings all the possible pains to the ship. The “bloody Sun” represents a sort of divine punishment and it introduces the period of sorrow caused by the Spirit.
As regard the formal aspect of this part, it consists of 14 stanzas, 12 of them are quatrains while the third and the forth are made of six lines. There are a lot of alliterations that in most case are used to create onomatopoeic sounds: in fact in the fifth stanza the frequent use of “f” gives the idea of “breeze” and “foam”. Moreover we can notice the presence of internal rhymes that make the rhythm more melodious.

DEVICE:
- ALLITERATION: - vv. 103 e 104: the foam flew, the furrow followed free;

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest,
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear Good who loveth us
He made and loveth all.»

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridgeroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.

Addio, addio! Ma questo io dico a te, o Convitato: prega bene sol chi ben ama e gli uomini e gli uccelli e le bestie.

Prega bene colui che meglio ama tutte le creature, piccole e grandi; poichè il buon Dio che ci ama, ha fatto e ama tutti.

Il marinaro dall'occhio brillante, dalla barba brinata dagli anni, è sparito - e ora il Convitato non si dirige più alla porta dello sposo.

Egli se ne venne, come stordito, e fuori dai sensi. E quando si levò la mattina dopo, era un uomo più triste e più savio.

In the last four quatrains the initial situation of the ballad is taken again: the Mariner says farewell and tells the guest to love all things that God made and loves; only in this way men can pray well. Then the Mariner goes away and the guest decides not to go to the wedding-feast; he is like one that has been stunned, but he rises sadder and wiser next morning. We can say that there is an identification with the reader that, after reading the ballad, changes his opinions and is ready to live in the best way without defying God and the power of nature as the Ancient Mariner has done.

MESSAGE: you have to be in comunion with God, you have to love all creatures because nature is a manifestation of God. “Everything is define”: Pantheism. So, when he killed the Albatross, he committes a crime, he had acted against God. This is way he wasn’t able to pray, when he loved the monster, when he accepted that the world is a creation of God (so the Albatross became free and live again).
Il marinaio ha una punizione: raccontare alla gente cosa gli è capitato (fu punito perché ha ucciso una creatura della natura).

vv. 614-615: if you love all the creatures, you can pary well.
vv. 620: the Wedding-Guest doestn’t go to the party, ‘cause his point of wiew is changed. He has become SADDER and WISER.
vv. 624: sadder: he has become intrich with the dark side in all of us
wiser: he must not violate the order and lows of nature.

If you want to be nera God, you have to love all the creatures, not only the pretty one, ‘cause they are all cretaures of God. Nature is a manifestation of God: “Everything is define”: Pantheism.

→ he acted against God killing the Albatross; this is why he wasn’t able to pray; when he loves the monster, he’s forgiven → when he accepts the fact the world is a creation of God.
The Albatross fell down, so he is forgiven.
The turning point is when he sees the creatures and loves them.

He hasn’t got a reason to kill the Albatross.
→ symbol of the evel side of men.

The wedding-guest doesn’t go to the party.
He’s sadder and wiser.
sadder: he has become aware there is the dark side in all of us, so he is no longer innocent;
wiser: the mariner had tought he must see the world as a creature of God

There is something unesplored in our mind that cannot be studied with science.
“HEART OF DARKNESS”, begging of 20th century; it has an eco of the final message of the poem. It’s a novel. It talks about a trip in central Africa. Three people on a boat, one starts telling a story, when he finishes the last sentence a heart of darkness had come on the river. The effect is similar of the one connected the wedding-guest. DARK SIDE of men.
→ their attitude to life has changed, ‘cause it has come in touch with evil.

The Mariner has some characteristics: glittering eye, long grey beard, skinny hand; duplice immagine: 1) può essere uno spirito (not a real human being), similar to a ghost (mani scarne, occhi con un potere ipnotizzante); 2) an old man.
Making the wreal looks real and reversal.

The same is far natural elements: ice, storm, etc. → personification
It gives then an extradimension. It’s frightening.

- REDISCOVERY OF NATURE
- REDISCOVERY OF THE SUPERNATURAL

It’s the opposite of what Wordsworth does. He talks about nature as a source of joy, far Coleridge nature is stronger than men. It’s might (una potenza) and man is helpless when he faces nature. Nature has to be loved and respected.
(PASCOLI → natura consolatrice; D’ANNUNZIO → aspetti oscuri della natura)

ASTONISHMENT → is caused by sublime
FEAR → mable to act → ASTONISHMENT (→ SUBLIME)
and OBSCURITY → pain, danger, fear.

Everything which is terrible causes astonishment, often what causes this fear is BIG
→ DIMENSION (dimension is not really necessary)

→ the sublime inspires in us a feeling whic is not under our control

PLEASURE is less powerful than fear. It derives from the beautiful.
The SUBLIME is more powerful, ‘cause is not under our control. It causes fear.

BIRK is not the 1st to theorysize about the sublime. It was greatly debated. LONGINUS theorised about it. KANT distinguishes between beautiful and sublime.
Distinction between DIMANIC SUBLIME: it’s insprired by the forces of nature: juxtaposition between the individual and nature (for example all natural elements can’t control, for example an earthquake) MATHEMATIC SUBLIME: we finite against the infinite (fo ex. The sky); we fell this astonishment.
SUNLIME → la soglia
Going behind the limit, go into extraordinary, into the unknown, into obscurity.

They rediscover the idea of sublime, which is one of the key idea of romanticism. Poets look at nature in its sublime elements (COLERIDGE: he talks about the MIGHT(potenza) of nature and man is small and hopeless).
German romanticism is greatly influenced by this idea.