Work for Monday

Dear year 12,

Many apologies for my absence tomorrow. I have set you some questions on The Ancient Mariner to work on and prepare for your next lesson.  You should come to our next lesson with a detailed understanding of section 1 of the poem; hopefully the questions will guide you in your note-taking.

Keep working through the questions as you read on with the text. There are copies in room 5, or simply use the version below:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

These questions are adapted from Richard E. Matlak: "40 Questions to ask of The Ancient Mariner" in Approaches to Teaching Coleridge's Poetry and Prose, New York: MLA, 1991

Come to our next lesson with a detailed understanding of section 1 of the poem. The following questions will guide you in your note-taking.

Keep working through the questions as you read on with the text

Part 1

1.      Why does the Mariner stop “one of three”—in other words, that particular wedding guest?

2.      Why does the Mariner prevent a man from attending a wedding? Is a comment being made on wedding celebration in comparison with other experience?

3.      How does the Mariner stop “one of three”?

4.      What does moon-sun/night day have to do with the story? What kind of things happens under those planets or at those times of day?

5.      In what terms is the setting out of the ship described?

6.      Why do the mariners hail the bird as a Christian soul?

7.      How does the bird relate to the mariners?

8.      Why does the Mariner shoot the albatross?

9.      Is his act premeditated?

Part 2

1.      Why do the mariners change their minds about the value of the bird?

2.      What does the Mariner’s not being able to speak signify?

3.      What’s the significance of drought and idleness?

4.      Why does the crew hang the albatross around the Mariner’s neck?

5.      What does the bird have to do with the cross? Why should it be related to the cross?

Part 3

1.      What is the “spectre-bark”? Who is on it? Is it really there? How do you know? Who else sees it? How do you know?

2.      What does the act of rolling dice to determine fate mean about the nature of justice in the Mariner’s universe? Or, if you believe the scene is a hallucination, what does rolling dice mean about the nature of justice in the mariner’s mind?

3.      Why is justice an issue? What have the mariners done to deserve their fate?

4.      Why does the Mariner get the punishment he does?

5.      Why does everyone die but the mariner? Why are their deaths compared to “the whiz of my crossbow”?

Part 4

1.      Why is the Mariner made to suffer in the particular way described? How is his suffering related to his shooting of the bird?

2.      Why does he compare himself to the snakes he describes?
Why can’t he pray?

3.      What causes his change of perception of the snakes?

4.      Why does a spring of love gush from his heart? What does it meant that he is blessed by the water snakes “unawares”? How can he be unaware when performing what is by definition an intentional act? How and why does his saint get involved in this act?

5.      Why can he now pray?

6.      Why does the bird fall of his neck?
Why does it sink “like lead”?

Part 5

1.      Why can the Mariner now sleep? Is he forgiven?

2.      Why is the dryness removed with water?

3.      Why does the Mariner feel like a ghost?

4.      Why does the air burst into life?
Why do the men arise from the dead? Are they forgiven?

5.      Why is there music imagery?

6.      What does the spirit’s loving the bird who loved the man have to do with anything?

7.      Why will the Mariner do more penance? Does the continued penance mean more than that the spirit cannot be repaid for his loss?

Part 6

1.      Why hasn’t the curse died away?

2.      Why can’t the Mariner pray again? Did he ever change?

3.      Why do the men die again? Did they ever change? Speaking of death and rebirth, where’s the bird?

4.      Why does the Mariner think the Hermit can shrive him? Does the Hermit do this?

5.      Part 7

6.      Why does the ship go down like lead? Is it associated with the sinking of the albatross?

7.      Why does the Mariner have to tell his tale before he is relieved? Or is “forgiven” the better word?

8.      Why does the need to tell the tale return? Why does the need come on spontaneously?

9.      Why is it sweeter for the Mariner to pray with the congregations that to attend a wedding feast?

10.  Why is the Wedding Guest now sadder but wiser? What in fact has he learned?

11.  If the moral is a beautifully simple as “He prayeth best who loveth well,” what’s this poor fellow doing wandering the earth, unforgiven, forever? Why hasn’t he been forgiven? Is he wrong about his moral if his life doesn’t confirm it? Is he wrong about other things too?

Glosses

What are the point of the poem’s glosses? To what extent did they help you understand the poem?

General (extension) Questions:

1.      This poem is often read as a Christian allegory of sin and redemption. What meaning comes out of reading the character and events as Christian symbols? Is this reading satisfactory?

2.      What are the major differences between the early and later versions of the poem? What’s your response to the shorter narrative and archaic language of the earlier poem?

3.      This poem is, if nothing else, a story about being told a story. Looked at from this perspective, what does the poem say about why and how we tell stories?

4.      The ancient mariner suffers; that much we know. What does this poem say about the nature of suffering and our attempts to transcend it.

5.      How does this poem make sense in the context of The Lyrical Ballads. How is it similar to other poems you’ve read by Wordsworth? Why do you think it was initially chosen to be the opening and hence introductory poem of the volume?

Considering Keats

Dear Year 12, I hope that you are having a productive and peaceful half-term. Thinking about keats, there are many places where you can go to find out a litle more if you want to open out your ideas about the poet.

Start off by checking a short biography like this one, which will give you the basic details of his life. There is no excuse for reading this--it is a page long. This will give you a framework for later research.

If you find that you are interested by this, then look at the website John Keats.com where you will find a useful biography page. This has short sections which hyperlink to the biography by Sir Sidney Calvin, which has an immense amount of detail. For instance, you can read here about the context of writing Lamia, which might illuminate certain aspects of that poem.

Watching Bright Star, beguiling though it might be, is not actually terrifically useful for the study of Keats, so if you feel compelled to find out more about his life, far more accurately interesting (though without the beautiful pictures) is to look at his letters. This site (English History) gives you routes through the letter chronologically and thematically, and is ideal for a quiet autumnal browse.

THURSDAY'S COVER

Dear year 12, please see the posting below. As you know, you are to work on your (beautiful) storyboard for next lessons, but I would also like you to read the post below (about comparing the strart of 'Lamia' and 'La Belle Dame') and make notes on how you would integrate it into your existing essay on how Keats opens his poems.

I shall look at these notes next lesson.... Good Luck!

Comparing the beginning of Lamia to La Belle Dame

Lamia
 Think about the start of the poem, and the ways in which Keats places it in the past through his mention of magic and fairies. He is employing a similar technique to that used by Chaucer in The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Again, there are echoes of Shakespeare, here with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

 The meaning of the word ‘Lamia’ is a monster, often thought to suck blood, especially of children—in other words, Keats is romanticising a demon here. How does he create sympathy for Lamia at the start of the story, so that the reader becomes engaged by her? One of the main critical debates about the poem is whether the reader is supposed to sympathise with Lamia, and if so, to what extent.

 Look closely at the language used about Lamia by Lycius—he calls her ‘goddess’ and ‘naiad’ and ‘Pleiad’ (a star). What do all these terms imply about her? Why does she then ‘play’ a woman instead?

 The poem’s opening creates what is in effect a frame-narrative, as we find out Lamia’s origin, something unknown to Lycius. How does this gentle introduction contrast with the ending?

 What about the authorial intrusions into the narrative (most noticeable at the start of part 2). Why does Keats include these, and how do they affect the way the story is told?

 Keats uses heroic couplets (rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter) for this poem. What might this imply about the nature and authority of the story? How is it different from the ballad form of ‘La Belle Dame’ or the Spenserian stanzas of ‘The Eve of St Agnes’?

 What about the division of the story into two parts? How does this affect the narrative? Is there a lacuna between the parts—the equivalent of an authorly ellipsis that passes delicately over the lovemaking implied?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

 Another framed narrative—though here it is a single-ended frame narrative, as although we hear the first speaker’s question answered (and repeated) by the knight at the end of the poem, we do not actually hear the voice of this first speaker again.

 It is striking how the poem creates a space for the voice of the knight, by leaving the three first stanzas unanswered. Sometimes readers do not notice the shift of speaker here—be sure that you do!

 The form of the poem is a ballad, and it has the typical features of this genre in terms of the four-line stanza, the ABCB rhyme, the archaic language, the simplicity of character and construction, the inverted syntax—what about it is not typical of a ballad?

 The structure of the poem is circular—the final stanza repeats (in part) the first. How does this repetition cause the reader to reflect upon the knight’s experience?

 The metre consists of three lines of iambic tetrameter, with a final line of varying syllabic length containing three strong stresses. How does this final line, and the strong stresses, affect the poem? How does it slow down the reader, and make us reflect on the words in that final line?

 Notice how the characters in the poem are in part stereotypical—the knight is never named, the lady’s name is a description rather than a personal name. How does this affect the message of the poem? Is Keats making more general statements about the relationships between men and women, and the ways that they view each other?

 Notice the semantic repetition as well as the lexical repetition—for instance ‘haggard’ echoes ‘starved’.