Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Stanza twenty-second. Compare Wordsworth's

"The Being, that is in the clouds and air,

That is in the green leaves among the groves,
Maintains a deep and reverential care

For the unoffending creatures whom he loves.

"One lesson, Shepherd, let us two divide,

Taught by what Nature shows, and what conceals;
Never to blend our pleasure or our pride

With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels."

Hart-Leap Well.

Compare also the conclusion of Tennyson's "Two Voices."

QUESTIONS ON THE ANCIENT MARINER.

66

PART THE FIRST.

WHY should not the poem open less abruptly, with a description, for example, of the surrounding scenery, as in Longfellow's Evangeline"? Would the first scene be equally effective, if the Wedding-Guest were alone, instead of "one of three"? Is there any gain in thus giving us the picture of the Ancient Mariner, not directly, but in the words of the Wedding-Guest ? What is the impression made on the Wedding-Guest at the outset by the "long grey beard and glittering eye"? What poetic purpose is served by setting this tale of the Ancient Mariner against the background of a wedding feast.? What indication of hurry and impatience is there in the last line of the second stanza? What is the meaning of eftsoons? How is it that the "glittering eye" holds the Wedding-Guest better than the “skinny hand"? What do the interruptions of the Wedding-Guest, as the tale proceeds, indicate in regard to his successive states of mind? Are there more reasons than one for giving this picture of the harbor here? How does the poem tell us in what direction the ship is sailing? Where is the ship when the sun stands over the mast at noon? What makes the beauty of the ninth stanza? Does the tenth stanza gain or lose in force from the fact that every line is the repetition of a former line? How do you understand the line

[merged small][ocr errors]

What is the main force of the comparison in the twelfth stanza? How do the following three stanzas contrast with the twelfth ? What impressions are made upon the ship's crew by this Antarctic

66

sea? How do you understand the word drifts in this connection? Why was it a dismal sheen"? What is the obvious and what the suggested significance of the comparison in the last line of the fifteenth stanza? What is the appearance of an albatross? How does the greeting given the Albatross make the Mariner's crime the more revolting? How do the actions of the Albatross enhance the guilt of the Mariner? What advantage is believed by the sailors to accrue to them from the presence of the Albatross ? Why, as suggested in the phrase "vespers nine," with later references to the saints, “Mary Queen" and the “holy Hermit" who has power to shrive the soul of sin, does Coleridge choose Roman Catholicism for the religious setting of his poem? Is the snowfog, glimmering white in the moonshine, white or dark by day? By what device does the poet increase the effect upon us of the Mariner's confession? What have been so far the sounds of the voyage? Can you find a line farther on in the poem which vividly depicts the last, ominous sound hinted at in this division of the tale ?

PART THE SECOND.

When and how did the ship turn northward? Why did the Mariner shoot the Albatross? Why do his shipmates cry out against him? Have his shipmates any share in his crime, or is it unjust that they should share his punishment? What change is there in the appearance of the rising sun, as they pass from fog to clear weather? What is the "silent sea"? Would the first line of the sixth stanza be as effective written 'thus:

"Down dropt the breeze, down dropt the sails"?

At what point is the ship becalmed? What does the poet mean by a "copper sky?" What is the effect of the repetition in the eighth and ninth stanzas? Can you substitute a better word for stuck in the eighth stanza ? What gives its peculiar force to the simile of the eighth stanza? In the ninth stanza, what is the syntax of water? What figure of speech prevails in this ninth stanza? Do the last two lines of the tenth stanza help or hinder

sapornaturval

Spirit

the poetic effect? Are the words "with legs" superfluous? Why is the rhyming effect emphasized in the first line of the eleventh stanza? What is the meaning of rout in this connection? What do you understand by death-fires? What suggestions come with, the words "witch's oils"? Does the eleventh stanza, with its dance and color, produce upon you an impression of gladness? Why does not the poet make the avenging spirit visible? Can you find two lines, farther on in the poem, descriptive of this spirit? What are the numbers referred to in the poem, and why should these numbers be selected rather than others? What picture in strong contrast to this tropic belt of calms, is suggested to memory by the last line of the twelfth stanza? What is the derivation of well-a-day? Why do the sailors hang the Albatross about the Mariner's neck?

PART THE THIRD.

Does the word weary occur too often in the first stanza ? What lines earlier in the poem convey a like idea with: “Each throat was parched,” and which expression seems to you the stronger? Why does the poet place the spectral ship in the west? How does he arouse our expectation and interest as regards the ship? What picture is called up by the third line of the third stanza? How is this suggestion of a water-sprite in accordance with the rest of the poem? How does the fourth stanza compare with the gloss upon it? What is the derivation of Gramercy? Why does the poet use the word grin in this connection? What is the significance of the last two lines of the fifth stanza? How do you picture the group of mariners that stand watching the progress of the coming ship? Are their eyes still glazed? What successive changes pass over their faces, as the ship draws near? What feeling does the Ancient Mariner express in the sixth stanza? Is there any indication in the seventh stanza_that_he regards the ship as supernatural? Why should the picture Sketched in the eighth stanza fill the Ancient Mariner with fear? What reason have we for assuming that his feeling is one of fear?

What is the meaning of the gloss: "Like vessel, like crew" ? What is the gain in poetic effect from placing this scene at the hour of sunset? What is the derivation of gossameres? What does the word gossameres suggest in regard to the sails? What figure of speech gives force to stanzas ninth and tenth? Why is the attention of the Ancient Mariner concentrated from the first upon the Woman rather than upon Death? Is there any culmination of horror in the questions of the Ancient Mariner? Does the Woman, with her red lips and yellow locks, impress us as beautiful? What feeling does she arouse in us? What is there in the description to justify this feeling? How do you picture that group of the twain casting dice? (See Notes for Milton's conception of Death.) What is the demeanor of the Woman? What do you imagine to be the demeanor of Death? What was the stake in this game which the Woman has won ? Has Death won anything by the dice? How does the gloss enhance the beauty of the description given in the first two lines of the thirteenth stanza? How does the sentence structure in those two lines heighten the effect? What are the peculiarly expressive words in those lines? To what sense does the first half of the thirteenth stanza appeal? To what sense the second? What causes the "far-heard whisper"? Why is the swift motion of the spectre-bark so appalling? What is signified by the looking sideways up? What is the force of the comparison in the fourteenth stanza? How do the dim stars and thick night correspond with the Mariner's mood? What is the value of the fifth and sixth lines of this stanza? What is the eastern bar? Can you sketch

"The hornèd Moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip"?

What is the function, in the narrative, of this long stanza? Is the expression "the star-dogged Moon" pleasant or unpleasant to you? Why does the poet throw moonlight, rather than darkness, over so terrible a scene? Why does he make the deaths so swift and sudden? What seems to the horror-stricken Mariner most strange

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »