I thought it was interesting that Coleridge says in the “Origin
of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’” that he uses the combination of moonlight
and sunlight to portray “the poetry of nature”. The supernatural is viewed in
both darkness and light in this poem. He speaks of this woman referred to as “Life-In-Death”
who kills all of his shipmates and takes him for herself. Right when he fears
there is no hope for him, Heaven’s angels come and recuse him and help steer
the ship back to his land. Coleridge uses the moonlight to show the Mariner
praying for help and then watching the angels by moonlight come to rescue him.
This is the most obvious use of light and dark. However, I think Coleridge was
using light and dark to portray “nature” in many different ways. Besides the
obvious use of darkness and moonlight, and light and dark supernatural events, I
believe Coleridge was also describing human nature in “the poetry of nature”.
The Mariner made a great mistake and suffered, but once he was given redemption,
he decided to devote his life to love and reverence. It starts off dark and
ends with a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. I believe Coleridge used
many forms of nature by using light and dark to show actual nature,
supernatural nature, and human nature. The combination is the true poetry of
nature to Coleridge.
I agree with the way you interpreted the light and dark symbolism, especially when the angels rescue the Mariner by moonlight. This focus on the human capacity for redemption stood out to me a lot in the poem; I guess I assumed after reading Blake's "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" that all Romantic writers steered clear of moralistic messages, especially those reminiscent of Christian redemption/forgiveness, but Coleridge proved me wrong. After reading this I looked up Coleridge's religion and sure enough:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/stc/religion1.html
i like the idea, though using light and dark to represent good and evil is a "very" old trope in terms of language. The idea of "the light at the end of the tunnel" as a potrayal of human nature though is pretty interesting in that no matter how evil humanity has been there's still redemption.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Coleridge using light and darkness to symbolize "the poetry of nature;" also using the woman to do the same - her as "Life-in-Death."
ReplyDeleteColeridge, like Keats and several other poets, use nature and natural elements as symbolism, often in combination with human beings; most often it is a woman. This reoccurring tie and connection between humans and nature in poetry leads me to truly believe that we are not all that different from nature. Both people and nature have a light and a darkness; both have good and evil within; both do what is needed to survive. Perhaps this realization is why so many poets use nature to symbolize humans and emotions in poetry. Or maybe it is for the vast imagery that nature provides.