Appunti su Coleridge

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Voto:	2 (2)
Download:	69
Data:	14.07.2000
Numero di pagine:	3
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

Life Coleridge evenful life reflects his complex personality. He was a very intellectual man but also a disorganised, impractical and weak-willed one. He was born in1772 in a small villagge called ottery st.mary; he went to cambridge but he did'n take a degree. In 1797 he starts a friendship with wordsworth(long-lasting,mutually stimulating effects). They wrote together LYRICAL BALLADS(1798); THE RYME OF…… belongs to this collection. They toured together germany to study the language and the philosophy, and in 1800 they settled in the LAKE DISTRICT. To overcome a sense of failure he turned increasling to opium and alcohol. Because of this drug addition the friendship with W. Finished(1810). He spent his last 20 years at highgate, near london, in the house of a surgeon, Dr Gilman, who helped him to recover.he died in1834.
Literary output and reputation He becomes a literary celebrity after the pubblication of "Cristabel and Other Poems" in 1816 and of "Biographia Literaria". Some of his lectures were in great demand, like those on shakespeare(with them C. put the basis for modern Shakesperian studies). C.'s total out put covered a range of fields like philosophy, literary criticism, journalism drama and poetry.But he is expecially remembered for his extraordinary poems: THE RYME OF…… and KUBLA KHAN. These share the same dream-like quality and higly evocative language, and have established him as one of the great romantic poets.
The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner It tells the story of a mariner who is punished for killing an albatross, also his shipmates are killed. They die from thirst one by one while the ship is becalmed on the ocean, but the mariner's penance is more terrible because has no end: he has to travel endlessly to tell people about his experience and teach them to love and respect men and nature.
Reality and symbol The world of the RIME… is a juxstaposition of ordinary experience and supernatural events. The fury of the storm, the land of ice, mist and snow, and the ocean are described in such a vivid manner as to evoke real immages in the reader's mind. Natural elements and landscapes are charged with a deeper symbolic meaning (sun = stern divine justice, calm = desolation of a sinful soul, rotting sea = mariner's soul troubled by guilt, moonlight = refreshing coolness of forgiveness).
The atmosphere The dominant atmosphere is uncanny and eerie. It is created with an accumulation of strange incidents and disquieting details(The mariner has a ghostly appearance and an hypnotic power upon the wedding-guest, the ice is a threatening presence, the dead bodies of shipmates curse him with their eyes). Like the wedding-guest the reader can't choose but only hear and is impelled to go on by the musical hypnotic language. The poem is rich of imagery-repetition, interna rhyme, alliteration, similes, personification and sound effects.
Ballad form The RIME… reproduces essentially the traditional form of ballad but with variations (stanzas with 5 lines too, there is ABAB but it is not regular….)
The task of poetry (coleridge immagination at work) he starts from ordinry experience to create a timeless worldfull of striking immages which hint at undiscovered truths(C. task of poetry). the rider must be immersed in the immaginary world created by the author.
Interpretation There are a lot of interpretation but only 2 are interesting: the 1st is religious(The killing of albatross is a sin against god or nature, the mariner's sufferings are a form of purgatorial fire and his return to his country represents salvation); the 2nd approach may be called aesthetic (the mariner is seen as the artist who breaks bounds of convention in his search for beauty and self-knowledge and is eventually saved by the power of immagination. His mission is to pass on his discovery of truth to ordinary men, but he finds an uncomprehending audience(the wedding-guest)).

• The role of the poet: he gives magical elements to everyday life, it has an important eaching role in society;
• “willing suspension of disbelif” ( cosa significa per lui l’arte poetica: sospendere il non credere);
• C. talks about supernatural themes while W. talks about everyday life themes;
• The rime..:language is old fashion,use of alliteration(breeze blew,foam flew),onomathopeic verbs (“It cracked and glowed,and roaredand howled..”),personification(the Sun, the Storm-blast,the Moon,ice, mist, snow…),repetition.