Lesson Ladder 17
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Tobin
British Literature, Spring 2012
Unit 4
8 February 2012
Topic: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
FOCUS QUESTION: How is Coleridge’s poetry Romantic?
AIMS– Scholars will be able to 11.3.2 Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection
represents a view or comment on life, 11.3.4 Analyze ways in which poetry or prose uses imagery,
personification, figures of speech, and sounds to evoke emotions
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EXPECTATIONS
ON YOUR DESK
1. Place proper materials on your desk 
1. Your English binder
2. Fill in MLA heading
2. Two sharpened writing utensils
3. Sit at SLANT
3. This Packet
4. Silently and immediately begin the “Do Now”
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Do Now
This week’s Do Now’s will review all of the grammar and usage concepts we have learned this semester.
Please correct the following sentences.
1. The winning goal was kicked but not until their was only one second left on the clock. (issues: spelling,
passive voice, comma)
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2. The buggy was use to wear and tear it had been making the trip into town cross bumpy unpaved roads
for nineteen years. (issues: spelling, run-on, commas, verb form)
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“Tintern Abbey” Activity
Draw lines to match the underlined parts of the summary with the lines they summarize in the poem.
Summary
The poet is visiting a place called Tintern
Abbey on the banks of the River Wye in
southeast Wales. He's visited it before, but
not for five years. He remembers almost
every detail: the sounds, the sights, the
colors.
Lines from Poem
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. – Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Lesson Ladder 17
Summary
Lines from Poem
He looks back on the past five years that
have gone by since his first visit to the place,
and remembers how much the memory of
this scene meant to him when he was
cooped up in the city. In fact, he practically
relied on his memories of the beauty of the
place to keep him sane while he was living in
the city.
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration: – feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure:
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again:
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led: more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days)
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
Now that he's finally back in the same spot
again, he finds himself looking out at the
landscape and experiencing an odd
combination of his present impressions, the
memory of what he felt before, and the
thought of how he'll look back on this
moment in the future. He imagines that he'll
change as time goes by from what he was
during his first visit: a kid with a whole lot of
energy. Back in the day, nature meant
everything to him.
Now, though, he's learned how to look at
nature with a broader perspective on life. He
doesn't just look and say, "Holy cow, the
view from up here is pretty awesome!" and
then run "bound[ing] o'er the mountains"
again. In other words, he used to enjoy
nature, but he didn't fully understand it. Now
he looks and is able to sense a deeper,
wider meaning to the beauty in nature. He
sees that everything in nature is
interconnected.
It turns out Wordsworth's sister is with him
during his present tour of the area, and he
says that she still looks at nature in the same
way that he did when he was a kid. He
imagines how his sister will go through the
same development and transformation that
he did. One day she'll be able to look out at
nature and imagine the interconnectedness
of things, too. Then he imagines her coming
back to the same spot years in the future,
after he's dead, and remembering the time
she came here with her brother.
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, …
Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!
Lesson Ladder 17
“Tintern Abbey” Answer Key
1. How the does the imagery of the first stanza reflects what you know about Romanticism? (Romanticism
is described on 663 for reference).
The first stanza contains abundant images of nature including steams, a sycamore tree,
hedgerows and unripe fruit on the trees. This relates to Romantics’ love of nature. It also
seems like Wordsworth is somewhat solitary in this poem, having a “moment” with nature.
This goes with the individual spirit of Romanticism. Finally, Wordsworth describes the
scenery imaginatively and even uses his imagination to ponder that a hermit may be sitting in
a cave in the valley below.
2. What changing attitude about the importance of reason is reflected in Wordsworth’s contrast of
childhood with adulthood?
When Wordsworth was a boy, he “bounded” over mountains, running so fast that it seemed
like he was running away from something. He loved nature and being in it but didn’t search his
mind to know why. Now that he’s older, he sees that nature has complexity and he thinks
about it more. He still loves it but sees now its vast power.
3. Read the excerpt “The evolution of the self” on 669. In what lines does Wordsworth particular seem to
be going through this “journey of self-discovery”?
Wordsworth goes through a journey of self-discovery especially in the lines:
“I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration”
5. DEBATE: Does Wordsworth express a deep truth about relationships with nature or are his reactions
exaggerated? Support your answer.
Possible answer: Wordsworth expresses a deep truth about humans’ relationship with nature.
He sees how we can exist in nature even after we are gone, because we once stood in a
certain place within it or saw the same scene that future generations will see. Nature
provides a kind of immortality in that way, which is a powerful truth.
Possible answer: Wordsworth may exaggerate our relationship with nature because most
people do not stop to think about it as deeply as he does. Unless one is a poet or song-writer
or artist of some kind, we often do not take time in reality to bound across the mountains or
listen to a steam, much less think about nature’s impact on us when we are in dark times.
Lesson Ladder 17
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Iron Maiden
Hear the rime of the ancient mariner
See his eye as he stops one of three
Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the sea.
And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
Caught by his spell and the mariner tells his tale.
Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
To a place where nobody's been
Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
Hailed in God's name, hoping good luck it brings.
And the ship sails on, back to the North
Through the fog and ice and the albatross follows
on.
The mariner kills the bird of good omen
His shipmates cry against what he's done
But when the fog clears, they justify him
And make themselves a part of the crime.
Sailing on and on and north across the sea
Sailing on and on and north 'til all is calm.
The albatross begins with its vengeance
A terrible curse a thirst has begun
His shipmates blame bad luck on the mariner
About his neck, the dead bird is hung.
And the curse goes on and on AND ON at sea
And the thirst goes on and on for them and me.
"Day after day, day after day,
we stuck nor breath nor motion
as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
Water, water everywhere and
all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink."
She lets him live, her chosen one.
"One after one by the star dogged moon,
too quick for groan or sigh
each turned his face with a ghastly pang
and cursed me with his eye
four times fifty living men
(and I heard nor sigh nor groan)
with heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
they dropped down one by one."
The curse it lives on in their eyes
The mariner he wished he'd die
Along with the sea creatures
But they lived on, so did he.
And by the light of the moon
He prays for their beauty not doom
With heart he blesses them
God's creatures all of them too.
Then the spell starts to break
The albatross falls from his neck
Sinks down like lead into the sea
Then down in falls comes the rain.
Hear the groans of the long dead seamen
See them stir and they start to rise
Bodies lifted by good spirits
None of them speak and they're lifeless in their
eyes
And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.
Now the curse is finally lifted
And the mariner sights his home
spirits go from the long dead bodies
Form their own light and the mariner's left alone.
There calls the mariner
There comes a ship over the line
But how can she sail with no wind in her sails and
no tide.
And then a boat came sailing towards him
It was a joy he could not believe
The pilot's boat, his son and the hermit,
Penance of life will fall onto him.
See...onward she comes
Onward she nears out of the sun
See, she has no crew
She has no life, wait but there's two.
And the ship it sinks like lead into the sea
And the hermit shrieves the mariner of his sins.
Death and she Life in Death,
They throw their dice for the crew
She wins the mariner and he belongs to her now.
Then...crew one by one
they drop down dead, two hundred men
She...she, Life in Death.
The mariner's bound to tell of his story
To tell this tale wherever he goes
To teach God's word by his own example
That we must love all things that God made.
And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man
And the tale goes on and on and on.
The lyrics of this song are based on the poem, almost a summary of it. Based on these lyrics,
what will this poem be about?
Lesson Ladder 17
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Reading Notes
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HW: Research Essay typed in MLA format is due THURSDAY. Outline is due as well. Must print
by 8:00 am – no flash drives can be dropped off and left. Schedule conference if needed.