Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Commanding Nature: Coleridge vs Wordsworth
One of the things that stood out most about reading Coleridge for the first day was how much I thought about him in comparison to Wordsworth, given the emphasis the textbook puts on their relationship. The place where this was most apparent was in the second stanza of "This Lime Tee Bower My Prison" when Coleridge expresses his imaginings of the natural landscape his friends are seeing in commands to nature. "Slowly sink Behind the western ridge, thou glorious sun!...And kindle, thou blue ocean! (32-37)." He tells nature exactly what it should show to his friends, and even indicates he thinks it could do better with statements like "richlier burn.' This fits with the idea I raised in class that Coleridge feels a sense of competition with Wordsworth, wanting to show him that Coleridge too, has bonded with a splendid piece of nature all his own. In this sense he almost takes ownership of nature in a way Wordsworth does not; his bond with nature drives him to worry that his friends will not see the same splendor in it he does. I could not fathom Wordsworth issuing what amount to stage directions to nature, and I believe these lines offer a first glimpse of how Coleridge's appreciation of and relationship with nature are different than those of Wordsworth. I am not saying however, that Coleridge does not appreciate or feel superior to nature, but that he wants his friends to understand the beauty of the part of nature he has bonded with so badly he cannot help but worry over its presentation. Wordsworth, on the other hand, would likely take for granted that anyone visiting nature could not help but be struck by its beauty, especially if coming from the city like Charles.
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I felt almost the same way when we first read Coleridge. Although, I think we would have spent a lot of time comparing Wordsworth to Coleridge if we had studied Coleridge first. I wonder if that would change people's feelings toward Coleridge because he would be setting the "romantic" bar rather than Wordsworth. Throughout all of the Coleridge poetry we have read I feel like Coleridge has a constant need to one-up Wordsworth or prove himself as an equal or more. But again I am worried this is just because we read Wordsworth first (I wonder: would I think Wordsworth was trying to be better than Coleridge in his poetry if we read him after Coleridge?)
ReplyDeleteWhat I appreciate about Coleridge is that he was born in a city and came to know nature later in his life. Therefore, he was able to compare nature to city life. After comparing the two he decided that nature was this beautiful and miraculous thing and much better than cities. This is very different from Wordsworth because he was born in a rural setting where nature was always easily accessible to him. Nature was all he knew and he happened to have a great childhood in nature and seems to associate the two.
This is a bit odd but when I found out about Coleridge living in the city first and then becoming "one" with nature I thought of the christian God and sinners. ( This sounds ridiculous and extreme but it's what I thought of!) Luke 15:7 " I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." I related Coleridge to the sinner who repented and Wordsworth to the righteous person who need not repent. This is not to say that people who love cities are evil or unforgivable sinners, but I think this verse speaks volumes about the strength of someone to radically change their beliefs from one thing to another over someone who believed one thing and only that for their entire life.