Students’ analyses of Wordsworth & Coleridge poems
In Arts One this week we talked about Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Today in class, after talking about “The Rime of the Ancynt Marinere” and Romanticism in general, I asked the students to meet in groups of 3-4 and analyze one of the other poems in the collection. These are their notes! “Expostulation […]
We wished we were Romantics
It is hard not to be a romantic, at least not a little. I can’t quite figure if I like romanticism or not. Actually this is not entirely true: I do like romantic poetry and literature. Its style, its prose, its metre, they are all very appealing and aesthetically pleasing. Hardly anyone could argue that […]
Old Man Travelling
Of all the poems in William Wordsworth’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, the one that intrigued me the most was Old Man Travelling (on page 103). I am going to use this blog post to try to figure out why it stuck with me even though I am not sure it’s my favourite poem in […]
Lyrical Ballads–Wordworth and Coleridge
One thing that particularly struck me about the preface was Wordsworth’s discussion on metre and the overall format of poetry. He states that “in one case the reader is utterly at the mercy of the poet,” whereas in the other (when the metre obeys certain laws) both the reader and the poet “willingly submit because […]
Wordsworth
Yesterday’s lecture made me both intrigued and skeptical of some of Wordsworth’s ideas. I decided to reread a poem from the “Lyrical Ballads” in order to see if Wordsworth could pull me in a direction that he seems to believe … Continue reading →
Lyrical Ballads and Organic Sensibility
A phrase that really stood out to me from the lecture on Lyrical Ballads was ‘organic sensibility’. This concept actually comes from the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads when Wordsworth says: For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: but though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached, […]
Poetry And Empathy
So it has been a while since I last read any romantic poetry, it’s not usually the sort of thing I enjoy. I find it can be a bit too maudlin for my tastes, a bit too emotional. That’s not to say I don’t like or appreciate emotions, just that having something solely focused on […]
Wordsworth
Sunny Sharma Poetry, like wine, is an acquired taste. In my experience, people either love it or dismiss it as pretentious; there is very little middle ground. Absolutely, there are incredibly flowery poets out there (one only has to Google Shakespeare) who are trying to be grandiose. I greatly prefer I the beauty in Wordsworth’s […] Continue reading →
The Simplicity in the Lyrical Ballads
After attending the lecture on Wordsworth and Coleridge, I’m fascinated by a number of things: 1. How exactly do the words and rhythms of poetry work together so cleverly to produce a) raw emotion b) a sense of calmness and c) simplicity + beauty ? –>It must require certain skills, such as a vocabulary, good […]