W6L1 Romantic Period: Rime of the Ancient Mariner & Wordsworth

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

Good morning V6! 

English class

Mevrouw Plazier/Ms. Plazier 

What do I expect of you?

• Try to speak as much English as possible. 
• Be mindful, respectful & communicate!
• Be on time: more than 5 minutes = too late. 
• Raise your hand if you have a question and be silent during explanations of me/student. 
• Bags are on the ground, phones in your bags. 
• No eating in the classroom (gum included), drinking water is allowed. 

learning goals

I can understand the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 

I know the most important ideas and works by Wordsworth.

What have you understood from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

- What is the plot of the story?

beginning - albatross - new ship - game of dice - fear - watersnakes - 2 voices - ending?

-Which aspects of the Romantic period can you recognize in this work?

Beginning 

• The ancient mariner tells the wedding guest a story about when he was at sea. 
• A huge storm came towards the ship and then there was mist, snow, and ice. The mariner describes the dangerous ice as "mast-high." "It cracked, it roared and growled." 

The albatross 

Albatross

The albatross appears in the mist and suddenly the ship is able to move forward again. The ice is gone. The mariner kills the albatross with his crossbow. Now the shipmen accuse the mariner of killing bird which actually brought them breeze and good circumstances. The mariner has to carry the albatross on his neck as a punishment. Now the sea changes again, the water thickens and slimy creatures appear on the ship. 

Death Vs. Life in Death

What happens with the ship that the ancient mariner sees?

Death Vs. Life in Death & Fear

Death (the woman) wins the game of dice and thus all the shipmen die. 

The wedding guest confesses fear for the ancient mariner's glittering eye. 

The ancient mariner tells him to have no fear since he did not die. 

The watersnakes 

Blessing the watersnakes 

The mariner is all alone on the ship with dead bodies. 

He sees watersnakes and blesses the beautiful creatures. Then, he is finally able to pray again (because of the dead men he was unable to). The albatross falls of his neck. While the mariner is sleeping it starts raining again and the drought disappears.  

2 voices 

2 voices

The ship moves forwards and backwards and is finally able to break free and move forward again. At the same time, the mariner hears 2 voices in his head. One that asks why the mariner killed the albatross and one that says he has done penance for this act and should do more to rectify it. 

The end

The end 

The shipmen have come back to life as spirits and move the ship forward as spirits into the harbour. A pilot, his son and a hermit approach the ship. The mariner tells his story to the hermit and the ship sinks in a whirlpool. The mariner explains to the wedding guest that he has to tell his story in order to get rid of the pain (free of agony but not of guilt). Finally, the wedding guest goes home and awakens a sadder but wiser man. 

What is the moral of the poem you think?

Ending & Moral

The mariner is freed of agony, but not of guilt. In order to free himself from this he has to tell his story over and over again. 

"He who loves all god's creatures will lead a happier life."

Which Romantic elements have you found in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?

Features

- emotional and imaginative

- intuition

- nature (as mysterious force, god-like or supplement for religion)

- exploration of human nature and native past

- exploration of importance of self-expression

- concern for outcasts of society

- focus on individuals/common man

- use of symbolism

- art as expression

- supernatural elements

Wordsworth

William Wordsworth 

(1770 – 1850)

William Wordsworth

- lost both his parents quite young

- walking tour of Europe --> French Revolution

-  fell in love with Annette Vallon, had a bastard daughter

- married Mary Hutchinson, had five kids of which two died.

- lost the will to write later in life

1798: The Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge (everyday language and presenting an original way of looking at nature.)

cyclical nature of life

?

?

?

cyclical nature of life

with God

Child with subconscious remembrance of life with God

corruption by society

recollection in tranquillity

The idea that when you are reminded of something that happened in the past, you do not just remember the event. The emotions the event originally evoked also recur. 

Which of the two ideas is expressed in the following poems?

www.poetryfoundation.org

www.poetryfoundation.org

homework

Choose one of the two poems we've read today and find the literary devices and sound techniques you've studied last year.

(the recap is in the shared LessonUps in case you forgot)

We are Seven

• The young girl Vs. the narrator
•  The young girl represents innocence and the emotional, keeps on saying that they are seven even though two siblings passed away. 
• The narrator represents reason, keeps on asking why they are not five?
• The young girl is not corrupted by society YET.