Coleridge's Ancient Mariner

ISBN-13: 9781137602572 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 267 str.

J. C. C. Mays

Opis

This is the first book-length study to read the "Ancient Mariner" as "poetry," in Coleridge's own particular sense of the word. Coleridge's complicated relationship with the "Mariner" as an experimental poem lies in its origin as a joint project with Wordsworth. J. C. C. Mays traces the changes in the several versions published in Coleridge's lifetime and shows how Wordsworth's troubled reaction to the poem influenced its subsequent interpretation. This is also the first book to situate the "Mariner" in the context of the entirety of Coleridge's prose and verse, now available in the Bollingen Collected edition and Notebooks; that is, not only in relation to other poems like "The Ballad of the Dark Ladie" and "Alice du Clos," but also to ideas in his literary criticism (especially Biographia Literaria), philosophy, and theology. Using a combination of close reading and broad historical considerations, reception theory, and book history, Mays surveys the poem's continuing life in illustrated editions and educational textbooks; its passage through the vicissitudes of New Criticism and critical theory; and, in a final chapter, its surprising affinities with some experimental poems of the present time. "

Recenzje

"All present and future readers of Coleridge's poetry will be indebted to Mays for having so thoroughly and incisively taken the measure of the language of Coleridge's poetry ... ." (Charles Mahoney, Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 58 (1), 2019)

Spis treści

CONTENTS

 

Preface

 

Abbreviations and References

 

1          Taking Bearings, Setting a Course

            what, when and why

            peculiar distractions

            almost like a subplot

            and further

            ideal core of the onion

            neither sheep nor goats

 

2          What Does the Poem Do?

            odds

            simply

            ballad

            words

            shape

            pictures

            mix

            so what

 

3          As a Poem of the Imagination

            return to source

            sensible and intelligible worlds

            touching Reason

            consequences

 

4          Wordsworth as Collaborator and Contributor

            seeds

            early collaboration

            the third attempt

            a different direction

            and sudden surprise

 

5          The Shadow Cast by Wordsworth

            the pairing

            welcome to Town End

            counter-statement

            further reformulations

            legacy

 

6          Revision, Gloss, Choice

            variants, versions, phases

            the 1800 version

            the 1817 version

            gloss

            choice

 

7          A Reputation by Default

            terms of acceptance

            provisional welcome (1800-1850)

            illustrated and examined, honoured and altered (1850-1910)

            researched, cherished, changing places (1890-1934)

            two landmarks and some twisted wires

            apotheosis and aftermath (1934-1972)

            begin again better

 

8          Today and To Do

            the double-bind of being ingenuous

            re-run an other way

            the labels are important

            all the dead voices

 

Appendix 1: "Ancient Mariner "1798 Version

 

Appendix 2: Reading "Alice du Clós", and for the Birds

            preamble

            narrative

            characters in action

            enlarging stanzas and their rhymes

            a scheme of echoes

            postponed problems

            a "live" solution

            clarifying comparisons

            beyond the text

 

Notes

 

Bibliography

 

Index

O autorze

J. C. C. Mays is Professor Emeritus of English and American Literature at University College Dublin, Ireland.

Blurb

This is the first book-length study to read the "Ancient Mariner" as "poetry," in Coleridge's own particular sense of the word. Coleridge's complicated relationship with the "Mariner" as an experimental poem lies in its origin as a joint project with Wordsworth. J. C. C. Mays traces the changes in the several versions published in Coleridge's lifetime and shows how Wordsworth's troubled reaction to the poem influenced its subsequent interpretation. This is also the first book to situate the "Mariner" in the context of the entirety of Coleridge's prose and verse, now available in the Bollingen Collected edition and Notebooks; that is, not only in relation to other poems like "The Ballad of the Dark Ladiè" and "Alice du Clós," but also to ideas in his literary criticism (especially Biographia Literaria), philosophy, and theology. Using a combination of close reading and broad historical considerations, reception theory, and book history, Mays surveys the poem's continuing life in illustrated editions and educational textbooks; its passage through the vicissitudes of New Criticism and critical theory; and, in a final chapter, its surprising affinities with some experimental poems of the present time.