Words Worth's Preface to Lryically Ballads

       First of all my first critique is that this guy does not understand the meaning of run on sentences.

      The theme chosen is the common language amongst “men.” In this portion of the preface to the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth speaks on how poets should use the everyday speech of the common man to express complex ideas; opening the common man up to new and enlightening ideas .

“But, as the pleasure which I hope to give by the Poems now presented to the Reader must depend entirely on just notions upon this subject, and, as it is in itself of high importance to our taste and moral feelings,”

William Wordsworth is saying that the subject’s “just notions” (the subject being a common man reader) is more important than the poets “taste “, which is the poets style and moral feelings which is referring to something he spoke about earlier in the preface about meanness 

“I cannot, however, be insensible to the present outcry against the triviality and meanness, both of thought and language, which some of my contemporaries have occasionally introduced into their metrical compositions; and I acknowledge that this defect, where it exists, is more dishonorable to the Writer’s own character than false refinement or arbitrary innovation, though I should contend at the same time, that it is far less pernicious in the sum of its consequences.”

       The comment about moral feelings could have been taken as bible or himself being facetious. Depending on whether someone was guilty of this or not probably influenced how they took those words.

The problem and paradox is that later he proclaims the enlightenment and responsibility to common man to interpret the complexities of life; which is good and great and all but where’s all the women; I am of course assuming they had women back then and that some of them knew how to write and even write poetry; I am also assuming that a manly man, super man poet/philosopher could see the beauty and talent of the female  poet, speaking on the injustices shared by women all around the world in common day occurrences. 

Overall the essay was good and this part a complex and understandably controversial subject of how people should speak, especially when personal and artistic expression. Though Wordsworth has good ideas and is technically right, he should just practice what he preaches and stop judging and picking apart his peers, who I am sure worked hard and had lots of talent.

        All in all it was a good essay with many valid points and many contradictions, but that is the beauty of essays like this that bear no legislative implications, thus it is allowed to be imperfect and irrational, while still being valid and a necessary expression of opinions.  

Keat's Ode

Why do you think pain and beauty seem so inextricably linked in these works?

The reasons when Keats' Odes are link beauty and pain is because that is the premise of the poems. In the poems Keats' is exploring the links between pain and beauty by telling a progressive story of how he came to terms with the beauty of life which Keats' gives a female personification to in the ode on indolence and the intensity of love and passion as pain in which he rejects. In ode to psyche he finally gives himself to the feelings of love and romance by proclaiming that he is now a worshiper of Psyche the wife of the warm love. Though Goode to psyche is not a painfully story but it is a good start to the true journey of the Odes which every story needs which is a giving of ones self to the journey; a commitment if you will.

What do you make of Keats' transportation out of pain into beauty or into nature?

 The "transportation" is slow and only really happens at the end in to Autumn, when he finally comes to terms with beauty and the pain of losing beauty. But the going into nature is interesting as it seems that Keats finds the majority of his endeavors and achieving wisdom in nature with the exception of Ode on a Grecian Urn when his journey s taken to the artistic depictions on a urn. Nature in 2 of the Odes brings him closer to understanding the nature of beauty and disappointment in which Keats successfully puts into terms.

What do you make of Romantic idea that the human experience is so often characterized by pain?

the purest appreciation of beauty is when you discover beauty when rising above pain. When one rises above the thresholds of p[Bain one finds power in understanding because that understanding acts as the greatest of pain killers. so in general the human existence is engulfed with the constant struggle of rising above pain and discomfort to appreciate the beauty of life which is so easy to miss when bogged down by pain. This concept makes for an easy premise for a story especially adventurous ones.

What is Keats saying about youth and old age?

Youth is beautiful and old age final but what he urn is trying to convey is that even as generations change, new ones born and old ones die the truth it is trying to bring to man is the beauty is truth and truth beauty and that is what it wants man to understand. In your old age appreciation is the cure for woe. And nothing teaches the old like the realization that life is never ending and the love and beauty Keats was afraid to lose was going to happen even after he was gone as seen in to autumn. In youth Keats feared the intensity of life so much so he shunned it. Then as he grew older he spent his time coming to terms until he did in which he described as Autumn.

Is it possible for us to really leave pain through the imagination and appreciation of beauty?

Of course! Like I said there is no pain killer for life like appreciating beauty. without that we would be killing ourselves indiscriminately until there was nothing left. Humans doing it all the time whether it be soldiers fighting for the love of their country which they perceive is beautiful IM sure to the man who sticks by their wife on their death bed. Beauty is why we are here dealing with all the bullshit of life.

What does it mean to want something or long for something we can't attain? Is longing an inevitable condition of being human or do the Romantics offer us a means of circumventing our human state?

If we did not long we would just do nothing. the work ethic of the human species, energized by our longing for a better situation then we are in is the most basic of survival mechanisms. The simplest example is hunger and nourishment. Thus longing is more then just the human existence it is existence for the most part down to sub atomic particles longing to change states whatever state that it is in. The romantics do not circumvent the human state but come to terms with it; accept it for what it is worth, which brings them some sort of enlightenment that they are expressing poetically. Keats and Blake like to use personifications of ideas they have to play roles in adventure they go on to overcome obstacles which are representation of the human condition. This why poetry is beautiful because it speaks on subjects we can all relate to, offering if not wisdom and a means to overcome, an outlet to relate or at the very least commiserate. 

In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

                 In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner there is a lot of symbolism I think it is interesting how Coleridge makes inner struggles and emotions into characters in the poem.it seems that everything one would be feeling or thinking gets turned into a character that the mariner has to interact with. For instance the “albatross” I interpreted as hope when they were crossing through the arctic or wherever they were. You could see how as soon as the albatross came the trip became easier, the wind seemed stronger, and health seemed in abundance then at some point he starts to lose hope or even kills his hope by shooting the albatross. This is representing the mariner becoming pessimistic and negative. It seems that once the mariner became negative, the drought started to happen, and the wind stopped blowing in which the other sailors blamed the mariner. The mariner had been put in a position of being responsible for morale in which he did not want. That is why the crew blamed his negativity for the stint of bad luck. After that the maiden appeared which symbolizes death. He was so enthusiastic to see her because at that point they wanted to die because they were all suffering from dehydration. That’s when the maiden declared that she had “won” and the sailors all died except for the mariner. Then when the crew died he blamed himself which is why he thought he was cursed. This is where he had the dream about his dead crew mates, again this is guilt manifesting inside him yet he was being assured that he had paid “penance and would pay more” for their deaths but it was ok and in fact they were “blessed” probably because they didn’t have to suffer anymore.  Then finally he made it home to see his people and country. The interaction with the hermit is the mariner’s manifestation of his conscience because he was still wondering whether he was responsible for the crews’ death or not. That is why the hermit asks him whether he is a good man or not; that is just the mariner wondering whether he was a good man or not. Feeling really bad about what had happen, he finally tells his story and the hermit lets him be free.  This represents him forgiving himself by taking responsibility and confessing what he had done to the “pilot” bringing him back to land. All of these characters are representations of different aspects of the mariners trip from the albatross being his hope, the maiden being death, the spirits being guilt and forgiveness and the hermit being his conscience. 

                The hardships of the mariner were troubling and hard but and it is what I am sure is a reality for scores of men who have went into the open sea. The best part is his perseverance by what seems to be divine luck. From beating death to overcoming his hopelessness to forgiving himself for what he considered the killing of his own crew and the albatross. I also love how the story is being told to the groom from what seems to be a broken down old man, but then turns into the realization that the old man is strong and wise. It also reminds me of the older men I have met in my life that through their stories of the hardships offer me wisdom and strength, which reminds that the concept of older generations passing wisdom down through story is a timeless tradition.  But Coleridge is doubly cool due to his uses of symbolism to really emphasize the struggle of his character. He flawlessly transforms the hardships of the mariner (which are mostly emotional) into tangible characters who serve as markers of the next part of the story. Even without the “parts” you could easily tell one part from the next by the new symbolic character that the mariner runs into.

                The Power of the active imagination is awesome. I find myself making stories about the things I am doing and my experiences to make my life more interesting. In doing that I am also able to analyze more clearly the things I experience in my life. It is interesting to see someone do that in their story and it is incredible to see it at the level that a master like Coleridge does it. If you blink for a second you forget that these characters are symbols and start interpreting literally. It also puts into perspective things like Christian and Greek mythology that use the same kind of symbolism.